Hello and long time . No , just I have missed you , and definitely I have missed talking with the mic or to the mic , but life must be lived , and in living life , or with living life , some part of it might take a back burner , while others take priority . In fact , they carry a placard and write I am priority .
What I didn't think , though , was that this conversation space will be one of those that will be taking the back burner , but , oh my , that's what has happened . The last eight weeks have been a real test of my new year resolve do not take anything personally . If you miss that , check out the quiet interlude of introspection , episode 13 .
You know what to say about being careful about what you pray for . Well , almost every significant thing that has happened in my life this year has reminded me daily of this mantra do not take anything personally . It has been a seizing of lessons , strings of lessons , if you will that has helped me revamp myself and also my relationships .
Some were painful , some were interesting , some were just downright empowering . If you're new to the Mindfully With Tumishe podcast crew , welcome . We welcome you . We welcome you . One of the messages we are heavy on here is connection and relationships , because we believe that it is an integral part of keeping a balanced mental wholeness and well-being .
Now let's get back to me . If you are a recovering performer like me , you know , you know it is truly hard to take a break , and the reason you're not taking a break is not because of people's standards or what people think of your standards or the perceptions of you .
It is really about your standards , the ones that you have set for yourself , and the perceptions that you have of yourself . Why ? Because these are the things , the feelings , the standards , the perceptions that you feed on on the good and high days , the bad and low days and everything in between days and everything in between days you have .
You try okay , why you're trying not to perform . You try to find what play means to you , but then you cannot find it . And because you cannot find it , you then begin to identify yourself by whatever thing you believe that you are good at performing at . There's absolutely nothing wrong with that . We are growing . Now let's talk about feedback .
Nobody's feedback , no matter how good , is going to cancel out your personal evaluation and the negative feedback . Oh , they're so good because they help you to even want to outperform those personal parameters you set for yourself . The positive feedback are good also , but what they tell you is that there's so much more work to be done .
Oh , you have grown enough to not identify with outside validations . Yes , you appreciate them or you appreciate it , but what you try to do is not to over-identify with the persons or people giving the validation and the criticisms . And yes , you've mastered it today .
You've built a system that seems to work for and with you across all your life's affairs personal , family , work and social , everything , even your finances . Then , boom , the unexpected happens and this requires you to shut down . But you cannot why your well-oiled system has to continue to work . So what do you do ?
You tap into your performance arsenal , of course , and soldier on till you find yourself again . The main challenge for me during this non-performance shutdown season was to balance my need to meet my own standards , do that as mindfully and with as much presence of mind as possible so that I will not lose myself . So let me give you a background to that .
When I started this podcasting thing again , I had set a goal for myself to hit 100 episodes by the end of the first year of launch . But guess what ? Life happened , then happened , and then happened again . I will tell you the story about the life that happened , don't worry . Yeah , it's a safe space , isn't it ? But that's not today .
I also , in my planning , didn't put certain things into consideration . You know logistics and all the thing that comes with production . I come from a production background but the things that I did put into consideration , oh , they fell flat . So I was turned .
So I was torn between keeping up my appearance or taking a step back and rewriting the whole goddamn year . So what did I do ? I chose to serve myself . I chose to serve me and be true to the message of not just the book Living Mindfully , the Journey to being , but Mind , but mindfully .
We took me here , the podcast and I got some help , yeah , from some past episodes . One of those episodes is charting a path of intentional living amidst lives , ebbs and flows .
This was with at the diary , or derino , and you'll find that in season three , episode five , where he said he had to shut down everything at some point during his journey , uh , to binging , if , uh , if , you would pardon the porn .
And when I asked him then what advice he would like to give to anyone who was feeling lost , and I said he would advise for the person to take a step back , shut everything down , to restart . That was strength number one . Strength number two came from another past episode and you'll find again in season three , episode nine , with Nkechajai .
This was titled Discord to Harmony Life Lessons in Resilience and Renewal Life lessons in resilience and renewal . And that was absolutely what I needed to tap into my latent resilience the ones that was dying , you know and to find play and allow myself not to perform Boom .
The other , which I think will continually tug at my heart , was found in Season 2 , episode 4 , with Uchea Gunabo , and it was on belonging . The question asked there was to belong or to fit in . Don't worry , I'll share the direct links to all of this in the show description , but this is where my strengths came from during this eight weeks .
Now , I don't know about you , but for me to truly understand any philosophy , any concept , anything that is trending , I tried to find metaphors , visual or semantic or anything that would help me see this philosophy or this concept .
This helps me not only to personalize the concept but also to contextualize it to myself , and that will help me in dealing with the people within my sphere of influence or the things between my sphere of influence . I had been looking for an indigenous expression , call it adage , call it proverb , call it idiom .
That would help me hone in on my year's personal mantra do not take anything personally . From the second agreement , from the four agreements by don miguel ruiz there are several , I'm sure , especially those who understand jorba , and I'm sure in your , if you're not even jorba , you would find different idioms and adages from your dialects that will serve .
Do not take anything personally . But the one that kept coming back to me and at me was , and it still is , the market , doesn't know if a person was absent or present . Any market , actually , even a supermarket . Okay , constantly singing this in the expression of Paul Play's Playground Party , do you remember that song ? Right Party .
Okay , I can't play for copyright infringement , okay so , but constantly singing this in that expression helped me through the seizing . That was both emotional and absolutely empowering . So I officially welcome you to season four of Mindfully with Tumishe , the podcast . More conversations coming your way , for sure .
What I am most excited about is the new way to connect with you on our way to build a community , a way to hear your thoughts about each episode or the one that's gone past , new and that's new and old . Now , on all episodes in the show description , you can send me a text message and you can also support the show via the support the show link .
My greatest job will be that you like , you share , you follow the show wherever it is you're listening from . Yet there is another one that's greater than that that would give me great joy , and that is as you navigate the transitions life is sure to throw your way . You stay connected to yourself through the higher power that created you for Living .
Love yourself , love your neighbor , love your country . Above all of this , love God . He is the essence of your being . I am Uluwatu Mushi Ola Dakpo Kuku . Till next week , stay curious and send me a text message .