The Pivot, the Panic, and the Peace That followed

In this honest and heart-opening Shower Sprinkle, I share the behind-the-scenes story of a big hospital event that took an unexpected turn—both externally and internally. What started with excitement quickly shifted into anxiety, control, and overwhelm. But through the process of pivoting (again and again), I found something deeper: peace.

If you’ve ever tried to control every detail, fix every problem before it happens, or make something “perfect” so it feels safe—you’re not alone. This episode is a raw and real reminder that surrender isn’t weakness—it’s wisdom. And sometimes, the biggest breakthroughs come when you loosen your grip and trust what’s unfolding.

🔑 In This Episode:

• What control really looks like (and feels like) in our bodies
• How a simple room change triggered an unexpected spiral
• The difference between planning and panic
• Why perfection isn’t the goal—presence is
• How surrendering led to more fun, more freedom, and real joy
• The power of pivoting—again, and again, and again

Take This With You:

“You can’t control every outcome—but you can choose how you show up. When you breathe, trust, and let go, life has space to surprise you—in the best ways.”

You can find me at:
https://www.instagram.com/cataton/
https://www.facebook.com/casey.taton/

You can find what sparks me at:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1AgeRtyojY/
https://www.instagram.com/lmbdcelebrations/

Music by: Jason and Ashley Scheufler
Artwork by: https://www.instagram.com/graphx_ink/

Transcript

0:04

Hey friends. Welcome to the Enter Spark podcast. I'm your host, Casey Caton. If you're looking to hear stories of transformation and personal growth, this podcast is for you. My guest and I will be sharing those sparking moments that has changed the mental living a more fulfilling authentic life. I'm so excited for you to hear each unique story. So sit back, relax, and let's get started. Hey friend. Welcome back to the Enter Spark podcast. I'm your host, Casey Taton. This is a shower sprinkle and really a bunch of realizations that I was just having. I just did a big event at the hospital. It's one of the biggest events we do all year. It is Christmas in July. For, little Moments by Dream Celebrations, and I do it with another organization and we have a bunch of community that comes in and donates, different things and superheroes that come in. It's a really big fun event. But a couple things came up for me. This year we changed a little bit and we pivoted and I got anxious and I realized that. I was trying to control the outcome. Ugh. Let me just tell you guys, when you think of control, I don't know what comes up for you, but trying to control and predict what's gonna happen does not help me at all. Doesn't help anybody, because the truth is we really don't have control over anything except for. The things we do ourselves. So if you are the person that where I was trying to plan every detail, I wanted to make sure every problem was fixed before it even happened, and I just wanted to be certain that everything was gonna go okay. It does nothing to you. It actually. It was not good, actually. It wasn't good for my body. It's almost like being in, you know, having trauma response. Trying to control everything can usually come from a past fear or a past pain. And what I know is I wanted it to be perfect, funny, right? Because there's really no such thing as perfect. And I had just listened to this podcast on pivoting, and I laugh because when I think of Pivot, our life is full of pivots, right? I always think of the friends episode. I have watched all the friends episodes and I laugh all the time over and over about them, and I think of them on. Where they're moving the couch and they're like, pivot. And then I was listening to this podcast about pivoting in life. And the example was, you know, you can pivot a little bit with things, right? But really you're pivoting your whole life. And it was like I pictured pivoting as a circle in my mind. Like it's not just a right turn pivot. It's like you're constantly pivoting with everything you do in your life because we don't have control over everything we do in our life. And it hit me. And so this event is very special and dear to my heart, and I just wanted it to be so beautiful. And the thing is, is I've done this event for years. This isn't my first one. We had some little things shift. We were shifting into different rooms and it scared me. I felt like I had no control, which I didn't. And I got to see pictures of the rooms of what happened. And so literally in my mind, I am trying to plan out what we've done in the past and how I can shift it to fit these rooms and. Make it the best possible thing, right? So I, and I had also told myself that I wasn't gonna be frantically doing this the night before that this happens every July. And although I didn't learn some of the changes until, a month before, I wasn't going to go into panic mode. And I think I went into panic mode over control is I had no control over the event. I didn't know the room sizes. Is this gonna work? Is that gonna work? Do I take 500 things with me just so I can make everything look perfect? But when it came down to it, what was perfect, perfect. In my mind, perfect in the kids' minds. Because really the only thing that mattered in that event is that we brought smiles to kids' faces, and it was a big. Aha moment of I can't control who shows up. I can't control what my volunteers do. I can't control what the rooms look like or even if everything's gonna fit. But what I could control is how I responded to it and how I responded to the event and going into the event. And I knew that we would be making that circular pivot several times. So. I just had to surrender and trust that I knew that I had the best of volunteers going to show up with the best, most beautiful energy. And whatever happened, however, the rooms got decorated, it was going to work out. And our mission is to bring smiles and those smiles were gonna happen. Oh, this is a heavy topic because. I want you to look at your life and just think about how many things do you want to control, how many things, do you have those moments where you're like, I just need this to be perfect if I just need this to go this way. But really, that's not real life. Um, we only have control over ourselves, and when we choose to do that and choose to just surrender. It's really trusting the process and it's something that I have really been working on. And I'm not gonna say this year was perfect on that, but it was a year of full circle pivoting for me and just releasing the control. And it also made me realize, what else do I try to control in my life? Because I don't have control over what's gonna happen next. Anything can happen. Anything is possible. And I realized that once I let go of that, I had more fun. The right volunteers showed up and we had kids that had the most beautiful smiles on their faces and parents who shed tears of gratitude that we were there doing this for their children. It has taken me a long time, and I think it's a constant practice and it is for me, but when you start to trust the process and let go, it's like you feel this flow in your body and this rhythm and this fun, like that's where the fun comes from, right? Just truly trusting, deeply trusting your heart, like opening your body up and like, yes. This is the best. Like I have no control over how this is gonna go, and I'm just here for it. And that is truly what I wanted to talk about today because this was a big thing for me and I, you know, I look back on past events and I have like this perfectionism that I want things to be perfect, so I don't either do them or. I do them and I just try to control everything. Is everybody okay? Is everybody fine? How are you doing? And I just, it's like in those moments you are not even enjoying because you're so worried about the things that other people aren't even seeing or even actually noticing. But when you surrender, you breathe and you calm your nervous system down and bring your body to full awareness. You actually get to enjoy what's happening right in front of you. We had a successful event this year, and so I just wanted to come on and talk about it. And the other thing I did is people would ask me, how did the event go? And I was like, it went okay. And then they were like, just okay. And I was like, yeah, it went okay. And I am gonna do a whole nother podcast on this. The event went amazing, you guys, not just okay, but my mind had already went into, okay, I was home from that event, and I'm already thinking about what I can do next year. And some of it's self-improvement. How can I improve these things? How can I make things a little less hectic next year? How can I make, you know, just overall. We wanna make things more smoothly. And so some of that's not control. Some of it's just really, I wanna make it easier for myself and everybody else volunteering and everybody else.. Helping, but not, but, and I also have to find the balance between the two of controlling every second of the event because that's not real life. When you go play a sports game, do you control the whole game? Absolutely not. You can't control your teammates. You can't control anybody else out there. But I can control the way I react and the way I respond to things. So I just wanted to do a little episode, a little shower, sprinkle on the feeling of control and the feeling of alignment. And it's been funny because when I know that I'm just free in alignment. I can feel it and I challenge you to go do something, let go. When we try and control things, we're just creating tension in our body, creating tension in our relationships and, you know, even our creativity. When I get into that place of letting go of control, I have so much fun. And I actually enjoy, and it's fun because I've been doing these things, you know, when I'm around kids, it's funny because, they're not trying to control everything. They're living in the present moment and they're just being kids. And I'm like, that's what life should be about, right? But somewhere in our lives we learn too. Try and control, try and predict the outcome. And so as I've been working on this, um, it really showed up for me with a hospital party and just. A couple of other areas of my life of, and honestly, with my shoulder, I have no control over how it's gonna heal, when it's gonna heal. But I'm learning that I trust the process. And for me, if you've listened to my other episodes, the shoulder process has been very, very long. And I'm learning lots and lots of patience because I can't force any of it. Nothing. Works as fast as any of us want it to be. And so going back to that fun part of just allowing myself to step back, do some breath work, take some deep breaths, pray, think positive thoughts, whatever you do for you, I encourage you to go do that. When I'm in alignment and my body is like, yes, I'm here for it. I stand different. Words come outta my mouth in a different way, more confident. And I honestly started singing more. I walk around my house singing a lot, but when I am open in alignment, I'll be listening to something and someone will say a word and like a song pops in my head automatically and I just start laughing because I wanna sing it. And that's just having fun, right? So go today and. Try and let go of control somewhere in your life. I'm gonna leave you with that, my friends., This was a big eye awakening experience for me and really something I've been trying to work on, but it really hit home with a big event that I had planned that turned out amazing. Everybody had fun. My volunteers had fun. The kids smiled. And that's what matters, right? They didn't notice the little small details that I noticed. When I let go of the control, I got to enjoy and I got to hear words of gratitude and thankfulness and see those smiles. And that's really what it's about. So whatever you're trying to control today, maybe it's what tomorrow looks like, maybe it's something in your life, an outcome, a relationship. A conversation, you're running it through your head, let it go. And just remember, you can only control what you can control the way you respond to anything that is happening. And when you take a breath and surrender, everything just goes so much more smoothly and there's so much more fun in life. So as I continue to work on this, I'm challenging you. Go to it yourself. And if you, you know, maybe you don't control anything in your life and you're like, heck yes, I am just that person that's here for anything. Whenever, wherever. Let me know. Help your friend out. If you're the person who's like, oh, this hit home for me. And I like to try and overthink control the things that are gonna happen, what people are gonna say. Try and let go of those, journal about it, do some breathing, calm your nervous system down, and then tell me, reach out to me and let me know how it worked out for you. Thanks for listening to my shower. Sprinkle. I hope you resonated with something in this. And, let me know what control means to you and how you feel about it. Thank you for tuning into another episode. I hope today's story inspired you to embrace your own journey of growth and change. Remember, transformation isn't always easy, but it's always worth it. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe. Share it with a friend, and leave a review. If you found something that sparked you in this episode and may spark a friend, I encourage you to go share with them. If you have your own story you would like to share, I would love to hear it. So please reach out to me. Until next time, friends, go have some fun and let those sparks lie.