Speaker 1: Our heart and our spirit is like a mirror, and
Speaker 1: every single day we accumulate dust on this mirror. Either
Speaker 1: you have a choice of wiping it off or it
Speaker 1: keeps accumulating and accumulating and accumulating, and it actually makes
Speaker 1: us not just more distant from the world, but it
Speaker 1: actually disconnects us from ourselves. I'm rather Wukiah and on
Speaker 1: my podcast A Really Good Cry, we embrace the messy
Speaker 1: and the beautiful, providing a space for raw, unfiltered conversations
Speaker 1: that celebrate vulnerability and allow you to tune in to learn,
Speaker 1: connect and find comfort together. Hello, wonderful people, Welcome back
Speaker 1: to this week's episode of A Really Good Cry. I'm
Speaker 1: so happy that you're here. I've been thinking about a
Speaker 1: lot this week, and I feel like there's a lot
Speaker 1: of heavy energy. There's a lot happening in the world,
Speaker 1: and for some reason, it feels like it's all piling
Speaker 1: up a little bit more than it ever did. Things
Speaker 1: so really heavy in the air, and I can notice
Speaker 1: in people's energy levels, and just the day to day
Speaker 1: grind feels a little bit harder. And we're only in
Speaker 1: the beginning of the year, and sometimes that can feel
Speaker 1: so defeating. And very overwhelming, especially with everything going on
Speaker 1: right now. But then the problem is that defeat and
Speaker 1: overwhelm leads us to feeling really depleted and helpless, which
Speaker 1: stops us from actually being able to be useful in
Speaker 1: times that we want to be, which is why I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about the idea of spiritual hygiene. They
Speaker 1: are the daily practices that prevent emotional and energetic and
Speaker 1: mental build up. Just like we brush your teeth, well, okay, wait,
Speaker 1: we don't brush your teeth. You brush your teeth just
Speaker 1: like you brush your teeth every single day, and we
Speaker 1: shower every single day. But what are we actually doing
Speaker 1: to clean our energy every single day? Because every single
Speaker 1: day we come into contact with so much more than
Speaker 1: most of our ancestors would ever come into contact with,
Speaker 1: and yet we don't think about cleaning our energy every day.
Speaker 1: We think about cleaning our physical body, but our spirit,
Speaker 1: our heart, our energetic feels that we have around us,
Speaker 1: we have to learn how to cleanse them so that
Speaker 1: we can cope in the world, so that we can
Speaker 1: and take in what's happening, but also feel like we
Speaker 1: can function and keep going in our day. So spiritual
Speaker 1: hygiene are just the daily practices that prevent emotional, energetic,
Speaker 1: and mental build up, and it helps you to clear resentment,
Speaker 1: regulate your nervous system, protect your attention, align your actions
Speaker 1: with your values. And the thing is, we don't fall
Speaker 1: apart from big events that happen. Usually we fall apart
Speaker 1: from these micro unreleased accumulations of things, whether it's unspoken irritation, comparison, scrolling,
Speaker 1: saying yes when you actually meant to say no, unprocessed jealousy,
Speaker 1: tiny betrayals of your own boundaries, or from other people.
Speaker 1: And if we don't clean it, it hardens into bitterness
Speaker 1: and burnout and resentment and cynicism. And why do we
Speaker 1: want to see world through a cynical eye? There's enough
Speaker 1: going on around us that is negative. But the problem
Speaker 1: is if we are also creating negative environment around us
Speaker 1: inside of us, then all we can see is that
Speaker 1: whereas there is so much positive happening, also there is
Speaker 1: so much goodness in the world, But if we are
Speaker 1: constantly not cleansing and clearing this dust that accumulates, then
Speaker 1: it's going to be really hard to see the world
Speaker 1: in that way. Actually, it reminds me of one of
Speaker 1: my favorite verses in the Vaders talks about I think
Speaker 1: it's in the Bugwi Ghita. Actually it talks about how
Speaker 1: our heart and our spirit is like a mirror, and
Speaker 1: every single day we accumulate dust on this mirror. Either
Speaker 1: you have a choice of wiping it off or it
Speaker 1: keeps accumulating and accumulating and accumulating, and it actually makes
Speaker 1: us not just more distant from the world, but it
Speaker 1: actually disconnects us from ourself. Imagine it as a block
Speaker 1: between you and your true self, a block between you
Speaker 1: and the most real version of yourself. And so you're
Speaker 1: not only doing it for how you can interact with
Speaker 1: the world, but you're doing it for yourself so that
Speaker 1: you feel connected to yourself, so you don't have all
Speaker 1: these barriers to connect to you, to God, to the universe,
Speaker 1: to the people around you. So I'm going to break
Speaker 1: it down into five areas of spiritual hygiene and how
Speaker 1: easy it is to integrate these cleansing processes throughout your
Speaker 1: days and weeks. The first one is integrity hygiene. One
Speaker 1: of the biggest pollutants to our spirit is incongruence. That is,
Speaker 1: the little things like when your words don't match your
Speaker 1: behavior or your body saying no, but your mouth says yes,
Speaker 1: you preach calm, but you end up living chaotic. I've
Speaker 1: definitely been there. You say you value your health, but
Speaker 1: you disrespect your body. Been there too. And if you're
Speaker 1: hearing this and you're thinking, oh, this is me right now,
Speaker 1: have a little thing to yourself. Ask yourself these questions
Speaker 1: and see where you land. Where am I cutting corners
Speaker 1: in my life? Because you know what, sometimes we think
Speaker 1: cutting corners is more beneficial to us because it gets
Speaker 1: us to our result faster, But it kind of feels
Speaker 1: like cheating ourselves. And so even if we are cutting
Speaker 1: corners to try and get somewhere that we want to be,
Speaker 1: and we get to the place, some what we forget
Speaker 1: is that the process of getting there, doing the work,
Speaker 1: taking the long journey there is actually what makes us
Speaker 1: feel like we've accomplished it, We've earned it. And so
Speaker 1: ask yourself, where am I cut in corners? Am I
Speaker 1: gossiping more than I'm having meaningful conversations? Am I constantly
Speaker 1: complaining more than I'm appreciating. I think that's a big
Speaker 1: one we sometimes don't realize. I know, for myself, I
Speaker 1: have accumulated a lot energetically and I haven't found a
Speaker 1: way to release it. I definitely think I become a complainer,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I notice it. And for me,
Speaker 1: it comes up most when I'm tired, where everything starts
Speaker 1: irritating me, I end up getting agitated more easily and
Speaker 1: my tiring as usually happens when I haven't prioritized trying
Speaker 1: to let go of these things. And so asking yourself,
Speaker 1: if you're constantly complaining more than appreciating, for me, is
Speaker 1: a really good sign that one of the things are
Speaker 1: happening around me. I'm absorbing it and I'm not actually
Speaker 1: learning how to let go of it, like I'm exhausted
Speaker 1: because I'm not cleansing. I'm not taking those things out
Speaker 1: of my system as I'm supposed to be. What promises
Speaker 1: have I been breaking to myself? Big one? The more
Speaker 1: that you end up promising yourself something, just like if
Speaker 1: you're in a relationship, the more that you break those promises,
Speaker 1: you end up breaking the bonds to yourself. What promises
Speaker 1: have I've been making and breaking to myself? Are there
Speaker 1: times or I'm not saying sorry when it might actually
Speaker 1: be my fault? You know? The reason I put that
Speaker 1: in them was because I think ego can get in
Speaker 1: the way of a lot of our relationships, and we
Speaker 1: think we're being strong, and we think we're being in control,
Speaker 1: and we think we're being in in charge when we
Speaker 1: don't say sorry about something, even when it's our fault.
Speaker 1: But really that's just ego, because when it comes to
Speaker 1: accepting fault or saying sorry to somebody, it should be
Speaker 1: such a natural instinct to us, because especially if you
Speaker 1: love the person and you value them in your life,
Speaker 1: and so when you are in the wrong, our natural
Speaker 1: spirit wants to say sorry, It wants to apologize, it
Speaker 1: wants to mend and repair, but we're blocking that and
Speaker 1: we're stopping us, and that stopping comes from our ego.
Speaker 1: All of that internal friction creates such discomfort in your spirit.
Speaker 1: Anxiety isn't always from the world. Sometimes it's just from
Speaker 1: the gap between who you say you are and how
Speaker 1: you're living. I always think about that. Where my anxiety
Speaker 1: is really high, I notice it in my mind, but
Speaker 1: I also feel it physically in my body. It's this
Speaker 1: subtle anxiety, the tightness in your chest, the irritability that
Speaker 1: seems to come from nowhere, that sense of fear and
Speaker 1: being on edge, even when life feels calm around you,
Speaker 1: having a little introspective moment and thinking to yourself, where
Speaker 1: am I not living in integrity? Where do I feel
Speaker 1: the disconnection between all of these areas what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, the way that I'm treating people, the
Speaker 1: way I'm reacting, the way I'm showing up. Is there
Speaker 1: a big difference between the things I'm saying in doing
Speaker 1: versus the way that I'm thinking, the way that I'm
Speaker 1: living versus the way that I want to be living.
Speaker 1: These things don't have to change overnight, but it's really
Speaker 1: I think the first step to everything is just realizing
Speaker 1: and recognizing that there are things to change. That creates ownership,
Speaker 1: but it also makes you feel a little bit more
Speaker 1: in control, and honestly, it helps reduce the anxiety in
Speaker 1: this situation as well. The next one is attention hygiene.
Speaker 1: Your attention is one of your most sacred assets, and
Speaker 1: these days we don't value our attention in the same way.
Speaker 1: We don't value it as being sacred. Most people give
Speaker 1: it away all day. I know everyone keeps saying scrolling
Speaker 1: is bad. We've heard it so many times. Scrolling is bad,
Speaker 1: and we know it, but we keep going and going
Speaker 1: and going. And I can speak for myself when I
Speaker 1: say my anxiety keeps building the more I keep scrolling,
Speaker 1: and then we wonder why we're so high, strong and
Speaker 1: on edge. But I really want you to understand the
Speaker 1: severity of doom scrolling or watching things that really disturb
Speaker 1: you or make you feel uneasy, especially if you're already
Speaker 1: feeling like that. I came back from India at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the year and I was doing so good
Speaker 1: with it, but recently I found myself even taking my
Speaker 1: phone into the shower, and I was like, what is happening?
Speaker 1: Every moment that used to bring me peace or where
Speaker 1: my in betweens in moments of crazy, is now filled
Speaker 1: with stimulation. And even if it's micro moments, those micro
Speaker 1: moments are the only times that your brain gets to
Speaker 1: reconnect with your body. And the thing with scrolling is
Speaker 1: it completely disconnects you. It disconnects you from your presence,
Speaker 1: from reality. It takes you into a whole different world.
Speaker 1: I highly recommend having areas in your life or times
Speaker 1: in your day where your phone is just not available
Speaker 1: to you, it's just not accessible, and start observing what
Speaker 1: am I consuming every single day what has access to
Speaker 1: my mind, Because everything creates energy and ripples in us
Speaker 1: and around us. What we're surrounding ourselves with creates who
Speaker 1: we are. So if you spend two hours watching conflict
Speaker 1: and outrage or feeling comparison as you're scrolling, what else
Speaker 1: do we expect to feel inside of our mind, whether
Speaker 1: it's social media or news or group chats. Remember that
Speaker 1: your attention is sacred. Just how we might treat money
Speaker 1: or physical things that we have attention we should be
Speaker 1: treating is even more valuable than that, because it is
Speaker 1: how we function in our day. It's how we are
Speaker 1: able to work, how we're able to connect with people,
Speaker 1: and so really treating our attention as being so valuable
Speaker 1: and remembering and reminding ourselves of that every single day.
Speaker 1: I also read somewhere it said your nervous system can't
Speaker 1: tell the difference between your life and what you scroll,
Speaker 1: So if you want peace of mind, we need to
Speaker 1: be consuming more peaceful nervous system regulating content. The world
Speaker 1: is crazy enough without us needing to watch a documentary
Speaker 1: about a serial killer, so maybe don't do that. Maybe
Speaker 1: watch something that makes you feel good instead, that doesn't
Speaker 1: put you on edge and make you run up the
Speaker 1: stairs before you go to sleep, watching your back thinking
Speaker 1: someone's in the house about to stab you. We don't
Speaker 1: need that. We just don't need that. What we need
Speaker 1: is something funny that makes you laugh and that makes
Speaker 1: you feel comforted and calm, Like, why not try that instead?
Speaker 1: Maybe this week, just don't watch any documentaries about serial killers.
Speaker 1: That probably will make a really big difference to your day.
Speaker 1: Next up is emotional hygiene. Most of us went tought
Speaker 1: how to process emotions. It's not something you're taught in school.
Speaker 1: They don't tell you that you're supposed to feel feelings,
Speaker 1: and then you're not just supposed to feel them. We're
Speaker 1: supposed to process them in the moment and then release them.
Speaker 1: We're not told that. We're taught how to manage them,
Speaker 1: or how to hide them, how to suppress them. But
Speaker 1: we're not taught how to actually fully go through the
Speaker 1: process of feeling, processing and releasing, and so unprocessed emotions
Speaker 1: actually becomes our personality. Unprocessed anger becomes irritability, a sharp
Speaker 1: tone with people, constant criticism, impatience, unprocessed sadness ends up
Speaker 1: coming out of us as emotional numbness, detachment from people
Speaker 1: or the people that we love, low grade heaviness or
Speaker 1: stagnancy in our body, the feeling of I'm just tired.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of life, I'm tired of people, I'm tired
Speaker 1: of everything. Not waking up feeling excited about life. Unprocessed
Speaker 1: fear can become control, perfectionism, hyper independence, anxiety disguised as productivity,
Speaker 1: and unprocessed jealousy well end up as constant comparison, competitiveness
Speaker 1: against people that you actually love and care about, or
Speaker 1: bossiping about people rather than having meaningful conversations. So when
Speaker 1: you don't metabolize or digest your emotions, it just becomes
Speaker 1: part of you. It becomes your identity, and you become
Speaker 1: the type of person that says, that's just how I am.
Speaker 1: I'm just a blunt person, or I just don't trust people,
Speaker 1: or I'm just really independent, I don't get emotional. That's
Speaker 1: just not who I am. But often that's just a
Speaker 1: stored feeling that we've kept in us for too long.
Speaker 1: I always talk about this, but it's because from when
Speaker 1: I first heard it, I just loved the idea of it,
Speaker 1: and it helped me to visualize emotions as something different.
Speaker 1: Emotion is energy in motion. It is designed to move
Speaker 1: through the body. So when you interrupt it by distracting yourself,
Speaker 1: scrolling over, working, intellectualizing, your nervous system never completes distress cycle.
Speaker 1: So the body stays slightly activated, slightly feeling unhinged constantly
Speaker 1: because those emotions haven't been processed. So we've heard all
Speaker 1: the tools. We just have to use them, but I'll
Speaker 1: remind you of them just in case you needed it.
Speaker 1: Journaling Now, I think people are getting really used to
Speaker 1: this idea of journaling, but I think others have this
Speaker 1: dear diary feeling about it, like how is this even
Speaker 1: going to help me? And coming from someone me who
Speaker 1: used to feel the same way about journaling. It really
Speaker 1: is just writing out every thought that's going through your mind.
Speaker 1: That's what you can see as what am I feeling
Speaker 1: right now in this moment as I'm writing, and you
Speaker 1: might notice, oh, I actually fee a little bit agitated,
Speaker 1: I actually feel a little bit angry. And the reason
Speaker 1: it helps is because if you're trying to just think
Speaker 1: of it in your mind, your might we get carried
Speaker 1: away with so many thoughts. But as soon as you're
Speaker 1: putting pen to paper. It almost serves as an accountability partner, like,
Speaker 1: let me follow through with this writing, let me follow
Speaker 1: through with this emotion, let me follow through with this thought,
Speaker 1: And so it can simply be how am I feeling
Speaker 1: in this moment right now? What am I pretending not
Speaker 1: to feel? What am I suppressing? What annoyed me today?
Speaker 1: Who do I feel resembful tod right now? I think
Speaker 1: it's really important to write these things out. Doesn't even
Speaker 1: have to be in a book. It can be on
Speaker 1: your notes app and you can just write down emotions
Speaker 1: that you're feeling, and whenever you notice something come up
Speaker 1: or you feel yourself getting anxious in a situation, get
Speaker 1: your phone out, write on your notes app and try
Speaker 1: and process it in the moment, like, Oh, this person
Speaker 1: said this, It really took me off. God, I feel
Speaker 1: really defensive in this moment, and I think it might
Speaker 1: be because in the past I've had people who talk
Speaker 1: to me like that and it makes me feel really
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and it makes me feel really bad about myself.
Speaker 1: So maybe that's why I reacted. I don't know whether
Speaker 1: that person was actually meaning to make me feel that way,
Speaker 1: but that's how I felt and I just needed to
Speaker 1: acknowledge it in this moment. And actually maybe I just
Speaker 1: feel better from saying out loud, and if no one
Speaker 1: else is acknowledging it, at least I am in myself.
Speaker 1: A lot of the time, we just want to feel heard,
Speaker 1: and sometimes people don't have time for us. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: don't feel safe enough to talk to others about it.
Speaker 1: But acknowledging it to yourself is also acknowledgement. And sometimes
Speaker 1: actually our anxiety comes from the fact that we ourselves
Speaker 1: are ignoring. It has nothing to do with other people.
Speaker 1: Another great thing to do for emotional hygiene is walking
Speaker 1: without your phone, showering without your phone, pooping without your phone,
Speaker 1: cooking without your phone, sitting and talking to someone without
Speaker 1: your phone. And if you are watching TV, maybe no
Speaker 1: phone while you're watching TV. I think we only need
Speaker 1: one screen at a time. There's also things like somatic shaking.
Speaker 1: It's meant to be so healing, and I use a
Speaker 1: vibration plate in the morning now, And there's something to
Speaker 1: your physical body shaking and moving in that way that
Speaker 1: helps to release other emotions, like all the stagnancy that
Speaker 1: you're feeling in your body. Usually physical stagnancy can also
Speaker 1: be linked to emotional stagnancy, and so if we're stuck
Speaker 1: in our emotions, physically moving our body can really help that.
Speaker 1: Another great vessel for this is prayer, whether it's praying
Speaker 1: to the universe, to nature, to God, however you feel
Speaker 1: most connected. It could be praying to someone that's passed
Speaker 1: in your life that you feel is like a little
Speaker 1: guardian angel to you. There's so many ways to connect
Speaker 1: to things other than humans around us. There's so much
Speaker 1: energy around us that we often don't see. But if
Speaker 1: you take a moment of prayer, you might be able
Speaker 1: to feel and having honest conversations with yourself in those moments.
Speaker 1: And then there's also obviously having conversations with humans, friends, family,
Speaker 1: being vulnerable with them. It can feel scary at first,
Speaker 1: but when you get into the habit of doing that,
Speaker 1: it can feel so healing. I have maybe one friend
Speaker 1: that I do that with regularly, and my sister, you know,
Speaker 1: if she's feeling a certain way, I just feel really
Speaker 1: sad right now, and I'll be like, I feel really
Speaker 1: sad right now, and we'll just cry to each other.
Speaker 1: Before we use to try and hide it because we
Speaker 1: don't want to upset the other person. And now you know,
Speaker 1: if me and my sister are feeling a certain way,
Speaker 1: we don't try to hide it. We just say it
Speaker 1: to each other. And same with one of my friends.
Speaker 1: We'll probably cry more than we laugh and joke together.
Speaker 1: But it's one of the best friendships because you don't
Speaker 1: have to pretend. And so finding someone that you want
Speaker 1: to be vulnerable with is really important. And sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes you to do that for the other person to
Speaker 1: feel like they can too. So maybe it's not waiting
Speaker 1: for the person to make you feel like you can
Speaker 1: trust them. Maybe it's just taking a leap of faith,
Speaker 1: believing that this person could be worthy of you being
Speaker 1: vulnerable with, and then allowing them to also open up
Speaker 1: in that way too. The third one is relational hygiene. Now,
Speaker 1: this one's really about regulating your energy with people. Relationships
Speaker 1: are one of the biggest sources of emotional buildup. So
Speaker 1: take a second to think who drains you in your life?
Speaker 1: Where are you overgiving? Where are you under honest? Not
Speaker 1: every friendship needs depth, but every relationship definitely needs clarity,
Speaker 1: and I think that line is really important. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: can romanticize this idea of every connection needing to be
Speaker 1: deep and intimate and vulnerable and constant, and that can
Speaker 1: be really heavy, and I don't think it does need
Speaker 1: to be that way. Some relationships are just light and seasonal,
Speaker 1: Some can be just professional, Some can be just activity based,
Speaker 1: and that is healthy. But being avail to everyone or
Speaker 1: not being available to anyone at all, those are two extremes.
Speaker 1: If everyone has unlimited access to you, your time ends
Speaker 1: up being so fragmented, your nervous systems stay slightly activated,
Speaker 1: your focus ends up being so scattered. And if you're
Speaker 1: also always used to being the listener or being over
Speaker 1: exposed to other people's traumas, it might be part of
Speaker 1: your work, or you might just be the little agony
Speaker 1: aren't that people always go to when they're not feeling great.
Speaker 1: And that is such a beautiful thing. That's such a
Speaker 1: wonderful thing that you create that space for people to
Speaker 1: feel that way, that they can trust in you. But
Speaker 1: that can get really heavy sometimes too. There has to
Speaker 1: be a way where you can receive that information but
Speaker 1: not make it your own, not make it your emotion.
Speaker 1: To carry it can put you in a lot of
Speaker 1: emotional debt. And sometimes if you're not counting that and
Speaker 1: you're not recognizing it, it can just become so depleted,
Speaker 1: like it's not your bank account that's depleting, but your
Speaker 1: emotional capacity and your energy is being drained and depleted,
Speaker 1: and you're going into so you really these are the
Speaker 1: things that you have to do to try and keep
Speaker 1: replenishing if you still want to get in you being
Speaker 1: that person for people. You need to find a way
Speaker 1: to protect your energy but also keep replenishing so you
Speaker 1: have enough for yourself. Some signs that I've noticed when
Speaker 1: I felt my relational hygiene is a little bit off,
Speaker 1: is you feel drained after certain interactions. You replay conversations
Speaker 1: in your head over and over again. You feel underappreciated,
Speaker 1: You feel obligated to do things or go places or
Speaker 1: speak to people. You feel a little bit resentful. When
Speaker 1: you do give, you may feel invisible. You feel like
Speaker 1: you're just doing and doing and doing and no one's noticing.
Speaker 1: But these are all little signs that maybe you are
Speaker 1: giving beyond your capacity. The next one is environmental hygiene,
Speaker 1: and this is something that I have come to really
Speaker 1: appreciate since curating my own home and being in my
Speaker 1: own space. I remember when I was younger, my mom
Speaker 1: would want things in specific ways, like no matter what
Speaker 1: room it was, whether it was my bedroom, whether it
Speaker 1: the living spaces, she always wanted her environments really clean,
Speaker 1: nothing out on the floor, no shoes out by the door,
Speaker 1: or her drawers were organized in a specific way. And
Speaker 1: I used to be like, oh my god, you are
Speaker 1: so neurotic, mum. Why can't I leave my clothes on
Speaker 1: the floor, Like why is that such a big deal
Speaker 1: to you. It's my room, Let me do what I want.
Speaker 1: And I realize now after having my own space. They
Speaker 1: always say that you end up learning so much about
Speaker 1: how your parents acted when you end up becoming that
Speaker 1: age or in that age range that they were back then.
Speaker 1: But now I feel the same way. I want systems
Speaker 1: and I want organization, and I want everything to be
Speaker 1: very clear around me, whether it's my room or my
Speaker 1: car or even my digital space, which I'm still working
Speaker 1: on right now. But it's a reflection of you. And
Speaker 1: so many people say that they find calm and chaos,
Speaker 1: and I'm not one of those people, so I can't
Speaker 1: speak to it or relate. But for me, chlarity, minimalism,
Speaker 1: and organization is my calm especially because I'm someone and
Speaker 1: I'm sure many of you can relate that, but I'm
Speaker 1: someone who can get really overwhelmed in my head, have
Speaker 1: a lot of thoughts to happen within one day, and
Speaker 1: the thought of having clutter around me, I think it
Speaker 1: would just tip me over the edge, just to be honest.
Speaker 1: So I love systems in my house. I love things
Speaker 1: being labeled. I like there being sections for everything. I
Speaker 1: think it makes a big difference to the calm that
Speaker 1: I feel. I always think about when you walk into
Speaker 1: a room and you notice or sometimes you may not
Speaker 1: even notice it. It's less of a visual thing and
Speaker 1: more of a feeling. When you walk into a room
Speaker 1: and it feels clean and there's nothing that catches your eye.
Speaker 1: Everything is just subtle. Everything seems like it's in its place.
Speaker 1: Your body feels calm when you walk into a room,
Speaker 1: Like right now, I have a room that is filled
Speaker 1: with I'm clearing out my closet. So I have a
Speaker 1: room that is absolutely packed with the random things everywhere,
Speaker 1: and they're different piles and all I can think about
Speaker 1: old days finding the time to clear that out because
Speaker 1: I know that that chaos exists and it's doing something
Speaker 1: to my head, and so there is a big difference
Speaker 1: that we feel in our emotions in our physical body.
Speaker 1: You feel more tense in those environments. So do believe
Speaker 1: that cut it as I creates a bit more chaos
Speaker 1: on the inside for me today, Oh my gosh. Actually,
Speaker 1: this morning I just cleared out all my unread WhatsApps
Speaker 1: and I had some from June twenty twenty five that
Speaker 1: I had not listened, that I had not read, and
Speaker 1: that was actually really embarrassing. I had so many messages
Speaker 1: from summer that I hadn't responded to. But my friend
Speaker 1: actually just gave me this technique that I really appreciate
Speaker 1: and it might help you if you need to digitally
Speaker 1: clear out. So what I've done is I've archived all
Speaker 1: my chats in WhatsApp and put a turn on my
Speaker 1: setting where the chat comes into your primary only when
Speaker 1: someone's message. So what I'm doing is I'm leaving them
Speaker 1: in my primary until I've responded to them, and then
Speaker 1: I archive it. So this way I know everything that
Speaker 1: I still need to respond to. There's nothing left in
Speaker 1: my head to think, oh do I need to respond
Speaker 1: back to that person? Are the messages that I have
Speaker 1: forgotten about no, I'm on zero right now. I clear
Speaker 1: that up this morning, but I've also done it so
Speaker 1: that I've archived everyone. So now I only have the
Speaker 1: messages that I have to respond to or that I
Speaker 1: have that I haven't responded to, and so that's been
Speaker 1: really helping me. I'm on day one of that, but
Speaker 1: I'm really enjoying that process of just reading, archiving, and
Speaker 1: then whenever something important comes back in to my inbox,
Speaker 1: I know exactly where it is and what that means
Speaker 1: for me. I won't talk about my email inbox because
Speaker 1: I think I'm at like twenty one thousand undread emails
Speaker 1: and I don't even know where to start with that.
Speaker 1: But you know, little baby steps. I read somewhere that
Speaker 1: every object in our visual field sends a signal to
Speaker 1: our brain and our body. So whether it's laundry on
Speaker 1: a chair, dishes in the sink, unopen emails, your brain
Speaker 1: doesn't actually ignore them. It kind of tracks them or
Speaker 1: keeps in the back of your mind, even if it's subconsciously.
Speaker 1: That tracking ends up creating this like background noise that
Speaker 1: is so unnecessary. It's like trying to think clearly while
Speaker 1: someone is whispering constantly. In the background. You think things
Speaker 1: go unnoticed, but they don't. Your brain is keeping track
Speaker 1: of it. Somewhere in the back of your mind. It's there,
Speaker 1: and so these little things clearing out. It's just such
Speaker 1: an important practice Physically, the best feeling is when you
Speaker 1: reset your environment, like maybe take a day or even
Speaker 1: half a day where you're doing your laundry, making your bed,
Speaker 1: clearing your counters, and organizing a desk. You're not really
Speaker 1: just cleaning. You're signing to yourself that I'm in control,
Speaker 1: I respect my face, I respect my mind. And that
Speaker 1: energy shift is kind of immediate. You feel it straight away,
Speaker 1: that sense of accomplishment, but also that sense of calm.
Speaker 1: The last thing I wanted to touch on is talk hygiene,
Speaker 1: and that's all about what you're saying, not just because
Speaker 1: it affects other people. It's not about even what you're
Speaker 1: saying to other people. It's well, it is a little bit,
Speaker 1: but more so it's about what you're saying to yourself.
Speaker 1: Most people think that creating this spiritual hygiene is about
Speaker 1: what you think, but actually what you say reinforces what
Speaker 1: do you think. People underestimate how much their mouth shapes
Speaker 1: their mind. So every time you say things like I'm
Speaker 1: so stressed, I'm so terrible at this, I'm awful, I'm ugly.
Speaker 1: Nothing ever works out for me. I could never do that.
Speaker 1: You're basically strengthening that neural path where you're strengthening that
Speaker 1: belief in your brain, and the brain believes what it
Speaker 1: hears often, especially when it hears it in your own voice.
Speaker 1: You are your mind's most trusted source. Whatever comes out
Speaker 1: of your mouth is what your mind is going to believe.
Speaker 1: And so think about it like that. If you are
Speaker 1: your most trusted source and your mind is believing everything
Speaker 1: coming out of your mouth, how would you talk differently?
Speaker 1: So many of us are creating limitations in our life
Speaker 1: based on what we're saying out loud, and that also
Speaker 1: applies to comparison. It leaks into our language. She's so
Speaker 1: lucky to have that. I'll never look like that. They
Speaker 1: always get those opportunities. I never get them. I feel
Speaker 1: so behind. Everyone else is further than I am. You know,
Speaker 1: whatever is that you're saying, That language trains your brain
Speaker 1: to scan for evidence of lack. The more you verbalize comparison,
Speaker 1: the more your brain searches for reasons that you are
Speaker 1: not enough and so instead of looking for the goodness.
Speaker 1: I remember this. I don't know who said it. I
Speaker 1: think it was rather than Swami, one of my teachers,
Speaker 1: and he always talks about bees and how bees always
Speaker 1: look for nectar. If you see a bee, you'll always
Speaker 1: see see in the middle of a flower, like trying
Speaker 1: to get the nectar from the middle of the flower.
Speaker 1: And if you see wasps, they say wasps are always
Speaker 1: near trash cans, looking for the you know, around dog
Speaker 1: poo or around bins that things have come out of.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of wasps seem to always be
Speaker 1: surrounded or always going towards the trash, and bees always
Speaker 1: looking for nectar. So he always speaks about how try
Speaker 1: and be a bee, like be a bee in your
Speaker 1: life where you're constantly searching for goodness, constantly searching for
Speaker 1: goodness not just in you, but in other people, and
Speaker 1: therefore your mind will end up creating that filter. And
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that you ignore the negative things or
Speaker 1: the bad things in people, I'm not saying that, but
Speaker 1: when you're constantly comparing, it becomes a filter that you're
Speaker 1: living through, and then those filters end up shaping your
Speaker 1: reality and So this idea of talk hygiene is just
Speaker 1: be a bit more conscious about the things that you're saying.
Speaker 1: That's it. Try and think about what you're saying to
Speaker 1: other people. Am I using words that are uplifting them?
Speaker 1: Am I using words that are motivating them? Am I
Speaker 1: pouring love and energy and greatness into someone? Or am
Speaker 1: I doing the opposite? Am I making them feel insecure
Speaker 1: because I feel bad about myself right now? Am I
Speaker 1: making them feel unworthy in their life? Based on what
Speaker 1: I'm saying? And then think about what you're saying to yourself.
Speaker 1: What words am I using? What limitations am I enhancing
Speaker 1: in myself? What beliefs and ideas am I constantly validating
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. You'll notice once you start hearing
Speaker 1: yourself speaking and you start becoming conscious of it, how
Speaker 1: much that's shifting the way that you're interacting with people
Speaker 1: and the way that you're moving through life. So I
Speaker 1: hope that was a good little reflection point for me
Speaker 1: when I was thinking about this episode. It was something
Speaker 1: I was taking note of because I've been feeling so
Speaker 1: anxious lately, and I realized it had so much to
Speaker 1: do with the way I was moving my body. I've
Speaker 1: been doing a lot of intense workouts, and I do
Speaker 1: think it makes a difference to the way that my
Speaker 1: mind is feeling. I haven't been balancing it out with
Speaker 1: calming activities at all. On top of that, I've been
Speaker 1: scrolling so much, and I've been feeling so drained at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. And I realized it's not
Speaker 1: even so much about my work or my workouts. I'm
Speaker 1: sleeping well, But I think a lot of it is
Speaker 1: this leaked energy that we end up throwing away and
Speaker 1: in all of these things that I just spoke about.
Speaker 1: And so if you are feeling that way, take inventory
Speaker 1: of what's happening in your day, in your week, in
Speaker 1: your month, and honestly, making those small changes make a difference.
Speaker 1: Even for me, just not taking my phone into the shower.
Speaker 1: It sounds so ridiculous. I don't know why I do that,
Speaker 1: But not taking my phone into the shower, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is so lovely, just like not thinking, not having
Speaker 1: so distracting me, and just feeling the water on my
Speaker 1: skin and smelling the really lovely essential oil that I
Speaker 1: spray into the air. It's a ucalyptus one. It's really nice,
Speaker 1: but just becoming more present in the moment allows you
Speaker 1: to feel more energy and receive more energy in the
Speaker 1: moment too. Sending your so much love. I hope you'll
Speaker 1: have such a wonderful week. I hope life feels a
Speaker 1: little bit lighter after listening to this and putting some
Speaker 1: of these practices into places