S4 E2 Project You Do You

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Good evening and welcome to the Comforting Voice podcast. I'm your host, Shasta Ray, and I'm joined in the studio tonight by Emmy the Minnie Macaw. She's hanging off of my shirt right now, making weird noises, and um, I've got a little bit of a scratchy voice. I don't know why. I feel fine, but I seem to sound a little rough around the edges today. I'm not sure why. Maybe the weather's changing. So I also wish to welcome all of you to season four. This is actually episode two of season four. The first episode of season four was our Friday night bedtime story, and it just seemed better to, you know, ramble chat about it tonight instead. So here we are, season four, well underway. Amazing, amazing. We've got the I never knew how far I would take this podcast if anyone had hear it, if anyone would find it. And here we are, it's been a year and a half since we started it, really. Today is also September 1st, first day of the month. So it is our first Tuesday of the month. We're gonna work on Project You Do You, or the non New Year Resolution, Resolution, whatever it is. So we've got a fun one lined up. I've got a great one that ties right in with everything with lawn, and we've got a bird adhered to a shirt. Life is good. It doesn't get better than this. How about you? How was your weekend? Did you survive it? Or is your week off to a good start? Oh my gosh. Summer is gonna be winding down. We've got a little bit of warm weather left, so enjoy it while you've got it to enjoy, and then we're gonna be off to a cooler season. I don't know about you, but sometimes I just cannot believe how fast time flies. It's crazy. So I've got some fun changes coming up on the podcast website. I keep starting to tinker with it and I have not gotten into the exact changes I want to make. Everything's still awesome, it's gonna stay awesome, it's just gonna be awesome in different ways. And if you haven't been over there yet, go check out the website, comfortingvoice.com. Tell the others, it's the join the fun challenge, trying to get the word out. And if you're listening in on an app such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify, it allows you to leave a friendly comment or leave a positive like type response. Go ahead and do that. That's one way to get the word out. Because what that does is it signals the algorithms that people like the show, and it starts suggesting it to more people that are looking for more content in the same genre that the comforting voice is in. So you can do a lot with just a couple flicks of your thumb. Thank you so much in advance. And before we get any further into the episode, let's take just a couple minutes and get through your sleep prep. Get all comfortable, get cozy, get ready to relax, at least just for a few minutes and hang out for a bit. While you're wrestling around and you're getting your feet up, maybe you're kicking your shoes off, maybe you're still putting your pajamas on, whatever you're doing, make sure you've got everything you need right at your fingertips before you settle in. If you like to have a cold drink of water nearby, or uh get your fan turned on, get your listening device set at that perfect volume. Somewhere in the mix, when you're ready, make sure you engage in a really productive stretch. It offloads the stress of the day, it offloads some toxicity, it offloads some of that funk that you just kind of accumulate whether you want to or not, right? Reach through your arms and your legs into your hands and feet, stretch out those fingers and toes and wiggle them really good real quick, and then release that stretch. You're gonna feel instant, instant relaxation just kicking in. And stretch however you like. If you've got a favorite way to just kind of engage those muscles, do it your way. Follow it up with a good deep breath of air. You want to inhale to about the count of four, hold it for about the count of three, top it off with another quick little inhale, hold it for another count or two, and then slowly exhale through your teeth if possible, make a hissing noise to about the count of eight. And between that stretch and that deep breath of air, that's gonna help set you up for a great night's sleep. Okay, and through the magic of audio editing, I have been attacked by the pickle chicken twice, one painfully. There was screaming. Um I'm okay. The bird's proud of itself. I you know, be careful out there, people. But anyway, I eliminated probably a good five minutes of chaos from your psyche that way. Audio editing is a beautiful thing. It really is. Pickle chickens, not so much. One out of one pickle chicken seems to agree. Okay, so let's get on with your tea tag and your fortune cookie slip, which I did have to get out of the cigar box earlier, um when the pickle chicken wasn't watching. Your tea tag. Every smile is a direct achievement. And your fortune cookie slip. Keep your feet on the ground even though friends flatter you. Hmm, good advice. And for those of you who play number games, here are your lucky numbers off the back of the fortune cookie slip. Four, eleven, sixteen, seventeen, forty-five, and forty-six. Why are you talking? Step up. Stop mocking me and step up. Good girl. Okie dokie, let's see who's been joining the fun on the listener base. Now, this is our segment every week where we honor three different countries from our listener base, and we learn a few little tidbits of trivia and a little bit about each other across the miles. And it's just a really fun way we can get to know each other and hang out without actually hanging out, you know, because this is a podcast. So there you go. It's the best we can do. Alright, first on our list this week is Algeria. Algeria is the largest country in Africa by area, and much of that enormous territory is covered by the Sahara Desert. It is so large that it is more than three times the size of Texas. Algeria has an unusual natural treasure in the Sahara, enormous underground reservoirs of ancient water, some of which were filled thousands of years ago when the region was much wetter. Algeria has a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea, so despite its reputation for endless desert, the country also has beaches, forests, mountains, and fertile northern farmland. So if you're joining the fund from Algeria, you represent enormous horizons, hidden treasures, and the wonderful surprises that can exist beneath and beyond what we think we know. Next on our list is very interesting. It is Brunei Darussalam. And the reason this is so interesting is because we mentioned Malaysia last week on Join the Fun. And Brunei Darussalam is one of the few countries in the world where the entire nation is surrounded by another country. Its land borders are completely surrounded by Malaysia, and that's fascinating. Brunei Darusalam is home to enormous areas of tropical rainforest, including forests containing trees that can be hundreds of years old. And Brunei Darusalam has one of the world's largest water villages called Kampong Ayer. Thousands of people live in homes connected by wooden walkways above the water. So if you're joining the fun from Brunei Darusalam, you represent peaceful community, remarkable adaptation, and a place where life can literally be built above the water. And last on our list for join the fun this week is Iraq. Iraq is described as the birthplace of civilization because some of humanity's earliest cities, writing, mathematics, and systems of government developed in the region thousands of years ago. Iraq is where ancient Babylonians developed an advanced mathematical system based on the number sixty. That's why we have sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour today. And Iraq was once home to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the famous seven wonders of the ancient world. Their exact location and even whether they actually existed is still a mystery. So if you're joining the fun from Iraq, you represent invention, imagination, and a place whose ideas still quietly shape the way the modern world works. That's so fun. So do you have a minute? I've got a minute. Let's see what Lon sent in for this week's Got A Minute.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Hey, it's Lawn. Got a minute. So are you gritting your teeth? Do you have some of your hair clenched between white knuckled fingers? Are you white knuckling the arms of your chair? Well, some of these thoughts may help. Just a few ways to help de stress your life. Get more physically active. If your doctor okay strenuous activity, get out and work up a sweat. Digging in your garden for a few hours, for example, is both grounding and a real stress buster. Go for a walk in the woods, pick an occasional steep hill. Remember what you used to love doing or what you always wanted to do? And begin that today. Dust off that old bicycle. Choose outdoor activities whenever you can. When you're limited by weather or time, choose to dance like no one is watching, to music that captures your whole being. Or just work out until you're tired. But whatever you choose, focus on the activity and how you feel. Don't talk, don't stream videos, or think about anything except what you're doing. Next, spend time alone in nature and do the same. Think of nothing but absorbing the sights, smells, and sounds around you. It's very difficult to stress while walking barefoot on a quiet expanse of sand, watching birds soar and dance on the winds. Even listening to waves or the wind rustling through the trees. Combining focus, physical activity, and time spent alone in nature can become your superpower. Also, release your attachments. Stress is caused by the fear that we will lose what we value. We stress because we fear that we will lose our health, our job, our home, our spouse, or even friends. We stress that we will have less tomorrow than we had yesterday. By releasing your attachment to your possessions and your attachment to your relationships, you can eliminate most of the stress in your life. Further, a key to manifestation of freedom from stress is to make a daily practice of visualizing your life without those things that you most value. Visualize yourself without a car, a computer, a cell phone. Recognize that those things do not define true value in your life. If you're in a highly troubled relationship and fear that the other person may leave you, visualize your life without that person and accept that your happiness in life comes from you, from within, not from any other person or situation. Simplify your life. Once you've released those attachments to your possessions, consider releasing those things physically as well. Search through your home for things that you have not used for a year and consider getting rid of the getting rid of those without a loss to your happiness. Perhaps you want to ask yourself about the true value to your life the possessions have. A purge may just de-stress life in many, many ways. And know that you are not responsible for the whole world. Worrying about things you can't control, the state of the world or the economy, or even crime in your community, the health of another person in another country, or whether your friend's business is going to fail, all of those are a waste of your time and cause much unnecessary stress. And finally, have gratitude for everything that has ever happened or not happened in your life. All of your life is part of the grand fabric of time. You wouldn't be who you are today if you had missed out on any of your experiences. Be thankful and thrive.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

That was perfect for our first Tuesday of the month. Thank you, Lon. I really think that fits in with our whole project You Do You the New Year's Resolution that's not New Year's resolution thing, you know, ongoing self-improvement stuff. So I'm not gonna really talk a whole lot tonight. This voice thing is really starting to bug me. Oh my gosh. But I did want to take a minute and check in and just let you know that um I've had some amazing, amazing stuff going on. I went in and had a follow-up a couple of years ago. I had sort of a general health panel done, I guess, and it revealed that I was starting in the direction of pre-diabetes. And so they tried to put me on metformin at the time, and I had a bad reaction to it immediately. It just did not work for me. So I went off of it and I just tried to eat better and drink a lot more water, you know, try to be more responsible about portion size, that sort of thing. And two years later, comes back, pre-diabetes is totally out the window. Not a problem anymore. So it can be done. It can be done. I want to encourage everyone, you don't have to make radical changes to your diet and throw yourself off in a bad way. I think when we think of terms of, you know, really turning our health around or making changes, we think in terms of radical, immediate, huge changes. But if you take it in the direction of like baby steps, try to eliminate one tiny thing that you don't need and bring in something that's better that is going to benefit you better. Or maybe you even like it better. So maybe there's a type of entree you like, but you don't treat yourself to it as much. Get yourself those ingredients instead of the the junk food, you know. Allow yourself smaller amounts of junk food so you don't feel denied, but start letting go of some of it slowly and bring in some of the good stuff slowly. And that's kind of what the approach was that I took. And sometimes I simply use a time related approach where I just say, Well, I'm kind of just wanting to munch right now, but I'm not actually hungry. I'm gonna wait ten minutes and see how I feel, and I'm gonna get busy doing something. So I try to distract myself, and usually, more often than not, the urge to just eat for the sake of eating kind of goes away. You kind of forget pretty quickly, and you get something done. And then that goes hand in hand with the whole organization thing I've started. So I'm far from perfect. Seriously, I bomb out all the time. You have days that you're just gonna be messy. I mean, seriously, you know? It just happens. You just don't care, you're just gonna throw stuff down and deal with it later. But sometimes it just starts bugging me. It's like, okay, I'm getting lazy and I'm causing myself more work. So when I'm having those hungry moments, that's when I go, okay, what do I need to to take care of so it stops driving me nuts? And you know, sometimes it's a matter of just kind of grabbing a few things, putting them in a drawer, putting them in a cupboard, whatever it needs to happen, and that's all it takes. Two minutes. And so it's all blown out of proportion. Looks terrible, looks like a huge chore, but really it it turns out to not be that big of a deal. And then I kind of have this uh, you know, a twofer kind of effect. You get two for the price of one, so I end up not munching and not having that bad for me snack, and you know, and I get something accomplished that's maybe kind of yeah, it might be affecting my mood. Sometimes I don't like seeing my house messy, it represents more work to me. So I feel better. Another thing I've also done is try to have snacks on hand so I feel like I'm getting that munchy, munchy, you know, satisfying experience, but the snacks aren't as bad for me, and they taste great. So see what you can do to find stuff for yourself in that direction if those are some things that appeal to you about this. I've also been just trying to move more and just not sit as much. So that goes back into the organization thing. And those are just three tiny little things that I try to put a little attention to every day in some small way, and I don't let it be a big deal, I don't let it be a chore, and I sure as heck don't let it be a bad experience. When I have a good experience, I have a second to recognize my efforts in that and pat myself on the back. Recognize how good that effort has made me feel in some small way or another. And it's paying off. I gotta say, I've never had quite this positive of an attitude about accomplishing stuff, and it really has taken the chore out of it. So I'm gonna see what else I can start maybe adding to my list in the next month or two. Beyond that, I just want to encourage everyone out there to do something for yourself in some small way that's gonna make you feel good about yourself, and it will make you feel good about your space or your life in some small way, and make things easier for you in some small way. So see what you can embrace and make it fun for yourself also. Make it a thing of joy and not a thing of dread. And I think that is the underlying hardcore key to success with it all. I really do. Make it something you want and you get some gratification out of the effort in some way. Make sure you can recognize that in yourself and pat yourself on the back. Very important. And I really don't have a whole lot more at this point in time for this episode. My voice thing is driving me crazy. I just feel like I've got a cotton ball wedged in my throat or something. I just feel hoarse. So I'm gonna go have some hot tea or something. I'm gonna get this edited and into your eardrums, get it published, and then we're gonna reconvene on Friday night for our Friday night bedtime stories for everyone. Oh my gosh, it is a fun one. We've been reading The Hardy Boys The Tower Treasure. We're gonna be on chapter four. You don't wanna miss it. And until then, sleep tight, good night, and bye bye, and it's a good thing.