Welcome back to Picture Love, friends. Thanks for being here. If you listened to last week's episode, we were talking about epigenetics, and I shared with you a conversation I had with my dear friend Linda. And she was so gracious to not only share some of her personal stories, but also her expertise as a scientist. And the topic of epigenetics is speaking directly to genes, genetics, therefore the human body composition. And in our Picture Love community, we've had discussions about sacred spaces and that inner space, that emotional, that energetic, that mental space where we can go inward, listen to our hearts, and kinda disconnect from the goings-on of the world. The world is so busy going on around us. And it's important that we choose how we participate and to what degree based on our roles and our gifts and our life path choices. But where I'm going with this is a little bit of a different approach. Those sacred spaces and how we approach ourselves can be easily related to the metaphor of approaching a house or a space that has a front door or a gate or an entrance of some kind. And how when we enter a space, whether it's a physical one, an imaginary one, an energetic one, when we enter a space, we bring with us that which we have active, within us. And that can sometimes include replaying dialogue in our mind, the latest news, conflicts and headlines that seem so loud or our to-do lists or even just fatigue. And whatever we are really experiencing, whatever's active in our body and in our mind and in our experience, that's what we bring into that space. I wanted to talk with you a little bit about choosing the 3D version and the ideas and the emotion versions of- wiping your feet on a doormat before entering. Practically speaking, it's nice when somebody uses their-- the doormat to clean off their boots or their shoes before entering inside and not bringing a lot of the outside stuff, debris that would dirty somebody's floors inside. But I wanna go deeper, and I wanna talk about brushing off the dust, the debris, the things that might have fallen off the trees on your head or might have fallen off of somebody's words into your emotions before going into a space, being selective about what we bring in. Just much like somebody who's moving into a new home, who might choose that moment to be more discerning about, does that bed fit in that bedroom? Does that table fit in that space? Choosing what comes forward with you into the new chapter, into the new space. So when we use tangible logistical, logical things like that, sometimes it's a little bit easier to grasp and draw attention to what are we feeling and what are we ruminating over that maybe doesn't need to come into that space. That space, whether it's your sleep, whether it's into a classroom full of small children. Leaving things checked at the door out of love for the experience you're about to have and out of caring for the others that are impacted by it. That's where I'm going with this. So much like epigenetics, where We have these switches where we can turn on and turn off. And I'm not saying everybody can go heal themselves. I never gave anybody permission to ignore their own medical advice and professionals. But taking the power back and understanding we do get to factor in the data with which we form our emotions and our beliefs. I heard a lot of complimentary and contradicting content from other creators who could ar-argue what came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case, what came first, the thought or the belief? Some people stand firm that thoughts come before your beliefs, and some stand firm that your beliefs cause your thoughts. And I think there's truth to both, and whichever one comes first is not my point. My point is we get to choose how we want to influence and how we want to experience our lives in way more ways than we have been led to believe. Now, to that thought, I have a story, I'm gonna tell you how I cooperated with a cabbage. Garden geek warning. Stay at your own risk. All right. So if you've been around, it's no surprise it's not news that I have been learning how to garden year-round in our new home. And in the garden, once the heat of the summer let up, I planted some greens and among them are cabbages, Napa cabbage. And we've bought them at the store before, but it's never anything I've ever grown. So it was, as all new things are, a learning experience. And what this might have to do with epigenetics and the entering of a space, sacred space, is that garden has become a sacred space for me. I have not put photos of a lot of it on social media because I'm protective of it, because it's personal. It's an intimate space for me. It's a space where I can talk to plants and not feel like a, a weirdo. I'm trying to let go of that and embrace my weirdo more. But these cabbages took quite a while to really establish, and when they were very young and looking like just a leafy plant, no hint of a head of any kind, I didn't realize how long it would take to go from that leafy stage to a, being able to pick a head. So they started filling in and got more leaves, and got more leaves, and got more leaves, and I noticed after a week away, I came back, and I noticed that a lot of them were starting to have holes as if being snacked on by bugs. I was really concerned, so I consulted with my farmer, Amber. She's the best. And I said, "What's going on?" And she said, "Look under the leaves." She thought it was, like, some kind of beetly thing. And I didn't see any sign of bugs, just besides the surrounding ants that live in gardens and outdoors. But then I did start to notice these, these waspy-looking things, and I'll be honest, at first I got a little scared of them because they were very large. And she insisted no. They're good for your garden. They eat the bad bugs." I'm like, "Okay." Not that there are bad bugs, but I'm saying bad bugs meaning those who ate my plants without my blessing. Anyway, I was really troubled by the fact that all the plants looked like they had holes throughout them, and I was concerned about how that was gonna develop. And so while talking to my plants one day, I said, if you buggy bugs would like to eat one of these plants, how about you just eat that one?" The, the one that had looked the most snacked on. "I'll leave it growing for you. All of its leaves can be your buffet, and you leave the rest for me and my family to partake." And I kept the garden watered the right amount and tidied and kept all the brush out of it. I did everything I could to love on my garden, but to also make it hospitable for the snacky bugs to just stick to that one plant. And what do you know? That's exactly what unfolded. I came with this idea. I spoke it into existence, literally, and one plant on one end of the garden and one plant on the other end of the garden have holes and nothing around them. Four raised beds. Two beds on the ends have the little sacrificial plants going on, and one even has grown so much I think they've backed off of it, and they just pretty much keep snacking on that one cabbage. That was pretty amazing. So I'm walking in around my garden this past week, and I noticed the first head is ready to pick, and it got big with... When I wasn't looking. I swear either I just wasn't noticing, and I was really looking, or it just did some rapid reveal overnight. And I picked it, and this, this cabbage head was easily three pounds. I pulled off some of the outer leaves where some of the holes were, and I cleaned it, and it was pristine. I could not find a bug anywhere in it, and it was sweet, and it was juicy, and it gave so much food. So much came from this one head of cabbage. I was able to ferment two jars full and make two salads out of the rest, out of one head of lettuce, and I thought to myself, "This is so deeply satisfying." I compliment my garden all the time. I talk to my garden just like I do my indoor plants, and I thank them every time they bloom and as they spread, and if they're not feeling good, I tell them, "You're doing a great job. Please keep going." And I'm realizing as I'm saying all this, I'm speaking to the plants the way I like to be spoken to. There's a frequency. There's a frequency in the way we speak, and research proving if you put anger and very low emotions at a plant, it will wilt. It will struggle, and it could even die from receiving that anger. But these plants get my love. They get my curiosity. They don't get my expectations. They teach me. They teach me. They actually mirror to me the love that I'm giving my plants, and to be able to actually receive that as a gift of food, that is an absolute one hundred percent beautiful reciprocity in the context of a garden. So whether you're a gardener or not, you're growing something. What is your metaphorical cabbage? What is that one thing that maybe we could look at and panic and say, "Oh, this is wrong. This is broken. It's not working. It's being destroyed," that could actually be the lesson that helps you grow the rest even better than you'd imagined? What could be that one sour grape that becomes vinegar. Vinegar has its use. You know where I'm going. Whether you're growing a plant or not, all of us are growing something. I'd like to think we're all growing too. What's that one thing that might have been a bit of a thorn in your side that could be simply a misunderstood lesson? I was listening to a message by a creator who I follow, and I started to write down what I thought she was saying, and then I realized I was interpreting a whole new idea, and I'm gonna read it to you. And it might end up being something I write and hang on the wall in my office here. And it said, If in fact you become what you choose, would you choose your own adventure with more awareness?" So I don't want to become a mangled, eaten, rotten garden I want my garden to flourish and be abundant. And by using that one eaten plant as a point to pivot, it really helped me experience an abundance that I'd never tasted before. I can't wait till I start having cauliflower and broccoli. The beets are already delicious. Instead of epigenetics, it's about flipping switches in our life experience. And nature has such a beautiful way of mirroring back what we are choosing. Sometimes it takes that mirror in a loved one or in a situation for us to be aware of what we're speaking or what we're frowning, or the tone of our voice, or even the perspective we didn't realize could be flipped in the most supportive possible way. So if you're open for a little bit more Picture Love, if you're open for an opportunity to flip something that isn't the way you'd prefer it be, Maybe consider that. Let's choose our own adventure. Not that we can change all of our circumstances, but choosing how we rise to them, choosing how we respond to them, choosing how we see them. This is how we can use more conscious awareness to have that kind of experience where we grow with joy. And if your heart is open to it, I am sending you so much joy as I Picture Love for me and invite you along the way. Water your cabbages. Look at your chewed-up cabbage, as an opportunity that's been waiting to be noticed. I love you. See you next time. Bye-bye.