Welcome to episode 44 of Working Towards Our Purpose. Thank you for being here once again. I always like to start these episodes with a positive thing. So I think the positive thing that's been on my mind a bit has is how the beautiful the weather has been recently. Last week was just like ideal summer weather. Not too hot or
humid, just like beautiful, sunny. So, yeah, I think it just reminds me that I like living in New England because of the seasons and because it gives you the sort of choice chance to like, appreciate the seasons before they go away. So there's always like a point mid summer where like I realize, oh, it's, it's summer now and it's really nice out and in a couple months it's going to be probably cold or not as nice out. So I should enjoy what's currently
happening. So just wanted to, to acknowledge that and say that it's still nice out and we can still go out and enjoy the summer weather and then, yeah, just appreciate that. I got my bike out for the first time in a long time last week and that's been kind of a nice thing to do as I'm enjoying the weather. So looking forward to doing some more of that. But yeah, so getting into today's episode, today I want to talk about struggling.
I've been, I've been struggling this morning as, as you could maybe tell by the lack of articulation in my intro. But. But yeah, last night and this morning been really, been really struggling with playing into fear, you know, thinking you're not good enough, self doubt, self criticism, feeling like I can't do something, you know, thinking about the future, thinking about the past, just, you know, too much thinking about the possibilities of things going wrong.
And, and yeah, I kind of just wanted to, you know, talk about that. I think I was, I was also, you know, worrying about, like, what should this episode be about. There's some other topics I wanted to. Was thinking about talking about. But I think as I want this podcast to be sort of what's happening currently and authentic and genuine to who I am, I think, yeah, talking about struggling right now seems to be what I'm being pushed
to talk about. So, yeah, I think if you're struggling right now or if you've ever struggled in the past, we all have. I think thinking about it and then thinking about, like, what we can do to kind of pull ourselves out of it. And specifically, I think, you know, what I'm struggling with is playing into fear. And I feel like there's always two choices. You can Pick that. You can either play into fear or you could play into faith or hope or positivity, however you want to call it.
And there's always like two ways of looking at things. You can always look at the negative or the positive. That's. That's what I'm trying to say. The negative or the positive. So, you know, when. When you're in a negative mindset. When I'm in a negative mindset, all the fears, all the negative negativities coming through, and I think, you know, I've kind of made some
notes for this episode and I think I have like three. Three steps, I guess, if you will, to try to help pull yourself out of a negative mindset or a negative feeling. And I think the first one is kind of just accepting and realizing that that's happening. I think for me, a lot of times in the past, I can go into negative thought cycles and feel bad about myself and not even really realize that I'm doing it.
But I think through going to therapy and working on myself and learning about emotions, I realized that, like, these sort of emotions and the way you're feeling about something can come and go. And that if you're stuck in a negative cycle or a negative thought pattern, it doesn't necessarily mean, like, that's who you are. I think I always kind of like, tied it to, like, my self worth. If I'm feeling bad or negative, then that means I'm a bad person
and I'm negative and there's something wrong with me. So I think the first step is accepting that how you're feeling is okay and you're worthy as you are and there's nothing wrong with you. And I think I constantly have to kind of remind myself that. And, you know, maybe if you need that reminder today that you are worthy as you are and you know however you're feeling is acceptable. I think there's probably a lot of reasons why we think that, or I think that that could not be acceptable. But
yeah, I think that it doesn't matter. The truth is that you are however you're feeling. So I think that's the first step in trying to get out of this negative cycle is to first just accept that and then the next thing that you can try to do is just focus on the present tense. Because a lot of things, a lot of the things that you're worrying about or that I'm worrying about aren't. They don't have anything
to do with, like, right now. They only have to do with things in the past that maybe I, oh, I should have done this, or maybe I should have done this, or maybe I shouldn't have done this, or it's the future thinking about, well, you know, I want this in the future, but I don't know how to get there. Worrying about if I can get there or certain monetary things, will I have enough money then? Will this thing
make me enough money? So just worrying about things that really you can't do anything about right now. The present tense is the only thing that's real and it's the only thing that you can actually do something in and focus on. So trying to get yourself to the present tense. And I think that trying to do. There's things you can do to get yourself to the present tense. And that's kind of what I was doing with my morning. So I just paused because I was
looking at these three steps that I wrote. And step two and three are basically the same thing. Just bring yourself to the present tense. So in that case, we have two steps today. So I got two steps for you. One of them is just accepting, like I said, and then the second one is bring yourself to the present tense. And yeah, so that's what I've been doing kind of in my, with, with my morning, trying
to do things that bring me to the present tense. So for me, going for a run is good at helping me become present because for me, running is a difficult thing and you have to like, focus on, you know, putting one step in front of the other and running and not stopping and, you know, thinking about your pace and stuff. Um, so, so that's really helpful. Walking is also really helpful if you're not a runner. Um, I think going for a walk can
be really helpful to get out of your head. Can be helpful to like focus on other things, you know, interact with nature, being outside. Something else that can be really helpful is yoga. I've noticed, for me, because it's like, it's like a simple thing. I do YouTube yoga and
I'm by no means an expert or anything. I just started one day on YouTube and I do these 10 minute yogas and they can be challenging sometimes, but it's, it's just a. And I'm sure this is, you know, proven in yoga books a thousand times over. But doing something as simple as just like moving and breathing how the instructor is telling you to do it doesn't leave room for thinking about other things because you're like, I gotta put my leg over here and then I gotta put my arm
up Here. And you're constantly kind of just moving your body and breathing, and then before you know it, you didn't think about any of the negative stuff that you were thinking about before you started yoga. And it kind of gives you a little bit of a break. Another thing that I like to do is journaling. And that can be, sometimes that can be good, sometimes that can be bad, but I think all depending on how you're feeling.
But one thing that was helpful for me was practicing gratitude and physically just writing down the things
that you're grateful for. And I think that that's always a good thing, because when you are practicing appreciating the things that you have, it becomes really hard to think about the things that you don't have or to, you know, think about, like, oh, well, you know, maybe I should worry about this or that when you're, when you're actively being like, I'm grateful for the food that's in my fridge because I won't go hungry for the rest of the day.
Like, you can't, you can't think negative. It's like, there's only space, space for one thing to exist almost. And then, yeah. Lastly, I think slowing down is, is helpful. Um, I think for me, when I have a lot of things that I want to do and I'm trying to focus on too many things at once, I could feel like I'm not making enough progress or I'm not doing enough things, not working enough. Um, and you kind of, I, I, I kind of just, like, keep falling down that pattern of not enough. Right.
Because it becomes like, oh, well, these are all the things I want to do. I'm not doing them fast enough. I want to do more things. So that means, you know, I'm not good enough because I should be making more of them, doing more things, accomplishing more. And then it just, you know, gets you right back down to the you are not worthy sort of thinking.
So, yeah, slowing down, taking some stuff off your plate, if that's what's necessary, focusing on one thing and really just trying to, I don't know, get back to yourself and, and, and be comfortable with, like, however it is that you're feeling. And I think something else, too, that, like, I'm noticing as I'm, like, going through my morning, is that once I did sort of accept that maybe I'm not feeling great and I'm gonna, like, try to take it easy. Like, I thought about
the podcast. I'm like, okay, if it's a little shorter today, that's fine. You know at least I, at least I got there and was authentic and myself and that's my goal with this so you know that's okay and that's enough. Like it doesn't, doesn't have to be 25 minutes, doesn't have to be 20 minutes. It can be 12 minutes and that's fine. And yeah, just again kind of practicing in real time accepting how I am and yeah, that's pretty much what I got for you today. Might,
might've been all over the place. Hopefully it helps somebody out there. Um, but yeah, as always you can sign up for a purpose call session with me for free for 30 minutes. Um, there's a link in the show notes email and you can always follow me on Subzac for more working towards our purpose stuff and writings and I will see you on the next podcast next week. I hope you have a great week and enjoy the weather. Thanks for listening.