Create Harmony

The Create Harmony Lifestyle: Rediscovering Peace in a Noisy World

• Sally

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Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the constant noise, chaos, and negativity that seems to dominate our modern world? That feeling of being swept away by stress, comparison, and fear-based thinking is exactly what the Create Harmony lifestyle aims to transform.

At its core, Create Harmony invites you to notice those tiny moments of joy that so often go unappreciated—the first sip of morning coffee, the sound of leaves rustling in the wind, a child's laughter, or the comfort of your own bed at night. These aren't mere distractions from "real life"; they're the essential building blocks of a more peaceful existence.

I'm Sally Burlington, your guide on this journey toward intentional living. As I share in this foundational episode, Create Harmony isn't about empty platitudes or simplistic "just be happy" messaging. We still believe in thinking deeply and feeling fully. The difference is that we're training our brains to recognize goodness, practice gratitude, and put fear back in its proper place. This isn't about denying difficult realities or becoming apathetic to suffering. Rather, it's about creating a space for emotional restoration so we can better face life's challenges from a position of strength and clarity.

Through our weekly podcast, monthly newsletter, workshops, and daily encouragement, we're building a community that values rest as a practice (not just the absence of work), moves in harmony with the seasons, and refuses to accept that the world is inherently bad and scary. Together, we can drive algorithms in a more positive direction and prove that in a tech-driven age, intentional living isn't just possible—it's transformative.

Join our growing community where we focus on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable." Your presence matters here, and together, we can move the needle toward making this world a more peaceful place. What tiny moment of joy will you notice today?

To learn more, go to mycreateharmony.com

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to the Create Harmony podcast. So our focus here is joy. That's around us all the time. Sometimes it goes unnoticed, it's just nestled in those little things of life. It's the taste of your first sip of coffee in the morning. It's the way the wind sounds when it rustles the leaves on the trees outside. It's the laugh of your child or the way a puppy looks when they're running through the yard. It's the softness of your own bed when you lie down each night, or the smell of your yummy dinner cooking on the stove. Each of those things holds a tiny piece of joy and it only takes a moment to notice them.

Speaker 2:

This is episode 140, and I am your host, sally Burlington, and we are at the end of the summer here. I live in North Carolina and we're transitioning seasons. So last week we wrapped up our Play it Forward series. That's what we did all summer. We adopted a more playful spirit together and hopefully the playfulness that we brought into our own psyches was spreading to everyone we came in contact with. So we're wrapped up on Play it Forward, and today we're going to revisit the concept of who we are and why we do what we do. So this is an episode.

Speaker 2:

That's all about defining the story that we're telling, and we want to define it more clearly and more intentionally and so that everybody completely understands what the Create Harmony community is all about. So when people ask me what I do, I usually say something along the lines of this I say you know how life can be busy and it can be noisy. Noisy and stressful, and the dominant story or the dominant narrative in our culture seems to be one of conflict and of chaos and of competition, and it's easy, and all that noise, to lose sight of what's truly important. So create harmony is my way of shifting that conversation. So, instead of dwelling on all that noise and all that conflict, our focus is on little pockets of goodness in each day. It's on helping you calm your mind, helping you soothe your soul and really reconnect deeply with peace. So how do we do that? What tools do we use to do that? So Create Harmony includes this weekly podcast that you're listening to right now. Also, we have a monthly newsletter that is more of an expansion of the ideas we talk about on the podcast. I teach periodic workshops and hold events locally, and then I put daily encouragement out on social media so you can tune into any and all of that, but more than that.

Speaker 2:

To me, create Harmony is a lifestyle, and there will be more coming this fall. We've got some more exciting projects. I'm going to talk about that maybe a little bit more at the end. But Create Harmony's lifestyle is about filling your life with gratitude instead of focusing only on the grind. It's about taking the time out to notice those everyday joys that sometimes we just brush past and we don't even see them, instead of comparing ourselves to everyone else's highlight reel.

Speaker 2:

It's really about elevating rest. Rest is not the absence of work, but is it is a deeply valuable practice in itself. I always say rest is a thing, not the absence of a thing. It's about moving with the seasons. We try to flow through the seasons and connect really deeply with nature, and it's about refusing to believe that the world is inherently a bad and scary place and led only by bad and scary people. So when we shift our thinking like that, when we as a community think about that differently, we can influence change. These are small, little choices in each day, but they're powerful and if you've been living with a constant hum and undercurrent of stress and angst and you're longing for something new. You have found it.

Speaker 2:

The heart of Create Harmony is intention and contentment, and it's about seasonal inspiration, joyful living and really deep connection. So I just want to say a little bit about what we are not. We are not just be happy platitudes. We don't just say, oh, put a smile on it and everything will be fine. Just lean into joy, just be happy all the time, even when bad things happen. We are not that, we are not overly simplistic affirmations and, most importantly, we are not political commentary, current events coverage, any of that. You're not going to hear us have discussions here that are all about what's going on in the news, because we're hoping that this is a place where you step away, a place to step into emotional rest and restoration and a reminder that fear does not have to run the show. We are advocates for intentional living and in this tech-driven age it's a little difficult to do that. So we're hoping that we can together drive the algorithm in a more positive way. This is where goodness wins.

Speaker 2:

We still believe in thinking very deeply and feeling your feelings fully. Still believe in thinking very deeply and feeling your feelings fully, but we also believe that training your brain towards joy and peace is not only possible but powerful. Now, having said that, we're all going to have hard days. Some days you're going to hear about devastation or you be part of some sort of devastation, and it's going to feel tempting to respond to that, particularly for me. If I see terrible things happening in the world, it's very tempting for me to respond. There's there are days filled with war and devastation and floods and things that are gut wrenching and heartbreaking, and this is not the denial of the gravity of those things. It is not the temptation to just look away and not care. It is not a step towards apathy. In fact, it is the space that you can step into to restore your soul in emotional rest, and this position of rest and restoration is intended to help prepare you to better deal with all of the challenges of your life. When you need space to breathe for a minute and reset your psyche, create Harmony will soothe your soul.

Speaker 2:

So one of the big tenets of Create Harmony, of our philosophy, is putting fear back in its place and not allowing fear and a fear-based psyche to overrun all of society. It's living in a way that our devices also stay in check. With Create Harmony, you can help rediscover your inner child and connect with life in a more playful way. So to better understand all of that, now that you understand the Create Harmony lifestyle, I thought you might want to know a little bit more about me, because I am the founder and voice and creator at Create Harmony. So sometimes you hear me say we instead of I, because this, in my view, it's a community effort, it's all of us working together and because part of that we is the Holy Spirit guiding the process. I am not doing this alone. But if you want to know a little bit more about who I am personally, I'll tell you.

Speaker 2:

I'm Sally Burlington. I'm the founder of Create Harmony and, like all of us, I fill many of your typical roles. I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a daughter, I'm an empty nester, I'm a sister, I'm a homebody, I'm an introvert. I'm all those things. But also, beyond that, I'm also a hope gatherer. I'm a garden tender, a content creator, a puzzle enthusiast. I like to collect books and craft supplies. Sometimes I use them, sometimes I just collect them. I'm a workshop facilitator. I like to reflect in my journal, be very intentional about writing things down. I'm a summer swimmer. We have a new pool in our backyard. I'm a yoga aficionado and the things I hold most dear are my family, my friends and my faith. I love plants. You're going to hear me talk about plants a whole lot. I have a sweet dog that I think is my best friend in the whole wide world, and we have two precious cats.

Speaker 2:

I'm very, very passionate about the mission of Create Harmony and, like I said earlier, we do have some exciting things coming this fall. You're going to hear more about that actually next week. But there's some really exciting new developments and Some things are going to add to our Create Harmony universe and they're really, really great. You're not going to miss them, not going to want to miss them so glad. You've taken the time to be part of our community. You are part of the we and you're a very important part of the we. Together, we're going to move the needle on making this world a more peaceful place.

Speaker 2:

So for our closing today, what I thought we would do is dwell on the verses in Philippians 4. These are pretty popular verses. It's Philippians 4, verse 4 through 8. No, I'm sorry, it's Philippians 4, verse 4 through 10. And what I've done is pulled this in three different Bible translations, because I thought that if we sort of marinated in this message and heard it from different angles, using slightly different words, it might touch us all more deeply. So I'm going to read those three for you.

Speaker 2:

Now we're going to start with the New, revised Standard Version and it goes like this Rejoice in the Lord. Always, again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication and with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and the message, and it goes like this Celebrate God all day, every day, I mean, revel in Him. Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them, not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute.

Speaker 2:

Do not fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Speaker 2:

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly, things to praise, not to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. Harmonies and our last translation is the New International Version, so you'll hear the same verses again from a different translation, and it goes like this Rejoice in the Lord always.

Speaker 2:

I will say it again Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice, and the God of peace will be with you. So I just loved that idea of really that's what we're all about here focusing on things that are true and pure and good and uplifting, and I hope that we can all spend more time in our days doing just that. So I am so glad you're here. I'm going to focus on the goodness of you being here. You mattered in this community and I'm looking forward to us all journeying together and focusing on goodness again next week.

Speaker 2:

And until next time peace.

Speaker 1:

Thank you.

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Sally Burlington

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