#71: The Tiny Winks You're Missing: How Life Quietly Supports You

What if life is quietly supporting you… and you’re just too busy to see it? 

In this episode of The Distracted Dreamer, I’m sharing a few recent moments that felt like tiny “winks” — the kind of perfectly timed experiences that remind you you’re not navigating life alone. 

Because sometimes the invitation, the connection, or the guidance we need is already right in front of us. 

We just have to slow down enough to notice. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE 

1️⃣ Trust and connection grow when you believe you’re not doing life alone 

2️⃣ We’re wired to notice problems but often overlook the good placed in front of us 

3️⃣ Support can show up in the most unexpected ways Life might be supporting you more than you realize. The question is: are you noticing?

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Transcript

Speaker 3 0:01

You're never too busy, too tired, too old, or too anything to pursue your dreams. Welcome to the Distracted Dreamer Podcast, where you'll learn how to move all those never ending distractions aside and chase your dreams with confidence.

0:23

Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Distracted Dreamer podcast. I'm your host Carlene, and today we're talking about something small, something subtle, uh, but honestly something that it's been shifting some things for me lately. I have been noticing these little winks from the universe. And before you roll your eyes or think, oh no, we've gone full woo woo here. Let me just say this. I'm not really a woo woo person. I'm pretty grounded. I like practical things. I believe in effort and responsibility and showing up, but. I also believe there are forces at work greater than us that we don't fully understand. You can call it God, call it the universe. Call it timing. Call it your nervous system. Finally, softening enough so you can see what's actually here in front of you. And here's something that I do know, is that when you open yourself up to the possibility that you're not doing this life alone, your world, it gets wider, it gets deeper, it feels more connected. And it's actually more beautiful. And what I'm really talking about today is how life sometimes shows up in the most perfectly timed, specific ways if we're paying attention. In this winter. I had a moment like that. You know, it's been a winter. I mean the kind where you're stuck inside because of an ice storm and your routine is completely off and everything feels gray and your energy is just really low. I know so many of you can relate to that. So here in Tennessee, after that big ice storm, we were all kind of frozen in place and I could feel it. That heaviness, the cabin fever, the subtle winter blues that sneak in and it just makes everything feel harder because those winter blues, they are real. And I just kept thinking the end of April feels so far away because that's when my husband and I are heading to Hawaii. And normally that would be enough, right? I got something warm on the calendar. I got something to look forward to. But in that moment, April felt like forever. And I had this itch. I wanted warm temperatures, I wanted sun. I want some ease. I wanna be somewhere where I don't have to grocery shop and I don't have to cook, and I don't have to answer emails. I'm talking no responsibilities, nothing to manage. I just. Want to exist. I just want to be, and here's what's important. I didn't declare this. I didn't post about it. I didn't even say it out loud. It was just this quiet little wish in my heart. Wouldn't that be nice? And then I get a text from my best friend. She says, I have a really insane question, which already makes me laugh. 25 years of friendship. I know something good is coming and she follows it with, we really need to get away, and I happen to notice a cruise leaving outta San Diego in March. Any interest? Any interest? Are you kidding me? Did you just read my mind? Because you know what? I didn't tell her about how I was feeling blue this winter. I didn't tell her that I was craving some warm temperatures. I didn't say a word, and yet here it was. This very effortless invitation, a nice warm escape, no cooking, no groceries, no work, no responsibilities, just rest. And yes, we're going, but here's what's wild. It wasn't just the cruise. That was the wink in that text that I got from my best friend. No, because I got another wink. So, you know, I'm a solopreneur and it can get really lonely, and I'm not complaining and I'm not being dramatic. I, I love what I do. I love coaching. I love my new membership community Dream Studio. I love creating this podcast. But when you run a business by yourself, you don't have coworkers down the hall. You can't pop into someone's office and ask, Hey, can I run this idea by you? You don't have someone who automatically understands the nuances of what it means to continue to run a business like this and make the pivot like I did to build a membership and. I've had this itch for a while. It's like just this big pull and I kept thinking, I really wish I had a small group of membership owners to talk to. Now I'm already into membership about building memberships. I know, right? Doesn't that sound redundant? But it, it exists and it's great and it's very cool and there are a ton of people in it. And even there I was having trouble finding just a handful of people that are in the same season. People who get it. People that I could ask. What's working for you right now? What's not, how are you navigating this? And I didn't post about it. I didn't even search about it. I just felt it. I just felt this, this loneliness and this need for some type of collaboration. And then. I open my email and there it is, an invitation from within this membership to join a smaller, curated community of membership owners, a circle of people in the same place, in the exact same stage of business as me, who want to learn from each other, to support each other and to grow together. And I just sat there staring at my screen like. O, okay, sign me up. This is exactly what I need. Exactly what I want right now. And again, I could brush it off. Oh, lucky timing. But the timing, it felt really personal. It felt very specific, and it felt like life was responding to me. It was like the universe saying, Hey, you don't have to do this alone. So. Maybe the winks aren't always about what we want. Maybe they're about what we need. Okay, now I'm gonna tell you another story. And this one is doozy, this one, tiny wink. It still blows my mind in the best way. When we moved to Tennessee a couple years ago, one of the things that was really sitting in my heart was that I wanted to find a church. Now, let me say this. This is not a conversation about religion or spirituality. It just so happens. That this particular wink was guiding. I grew up Catholic, Catholic school, 5:00 PM Saturday mass, because waking up early on Sundays, that just wasn't happening. And when we moved, I kept thinking, gosh, I'd love to find that rhythm again. But I never prioritized it. It just kind of stayed in the someday pile. And then I'm standing in line for my Southwest flight back to Tennessee from Illinois. And you know how Southwest works well, before they changed all their policies, right? You line up by number. So I'm number 44. And a gentleman walks up and asks, Hey, what number are you? And I say, 44. He smiles and he says, oh, I'm 43. So I back up and I let him in front of me, and that's when I notice he's dressed all in black, white collar. Ah, a Catholic priest I think to myself. So we're standing there and he bends down and he pulls something from his bag. It's a rosary. And I'm like, okay, I'm pretty sure we're going to have a safe flight back to Tennessee. This is great. So I finally got up the nerve to ask him if he's based in Tennessee or Illinois, and he casually tells me that he's a bishop in Tennessee. And I literally think. Oh my God. Like, no pun intended. And we start talking and I ask him joking, but also not joking. So where do all the fun Catholics hang out? Where I live, he gives me names of churches in my area. And then we bond over growing up, going to 5:00 PM Saturday mass, because Sundays were really rough. And I laugh and say, well. I guess you had to adjust to showing up on Sundays. Huh? He thought that was funny. But anyways, I am standing there texting my family like, okay, this is a sign. This is a wink. Not just from the universe, but from God, because I have been missing that space. I miss that rhythm. I missed that part of myself. And there he was, boarding number 43. Literally placed right in front of me, the greatest wink of all. So I want to invite you to just think about this. Have you ever been late and flustered and a parking spot opens up right in front of you? That's a wink. Have you ever had a day where you doubted yourself? And a stranger compliments you out of nowhere. Oh, best wink ever. Or have you ever been pondering something and then the next podcast episode and your feed answers it, that's a wink. Or have you felt overstimulated or overwhelmed? And then this winter, all of the snow falls and the whole world goes quiet. Oh, that's such a beautiful thing. These are small things. And they're winks. They feel personal, they feel timed. And when you start noticing them and collecting them, they become evidence. Evidence that maybe you're not doing this alone. And something shifts. When you start noticing, you relax, you soften. You stop gripping everything so tightly. You realize maybe you don't have to white knuckle every outcome. You start trusting what you want instead of judging what you want. You start believing that maybe it's not all on your shoulders, it makes you feel like. Somebody's walking alongside you, right? You're, you're partnered with someone or something bigger than you, something that's pretty intelligent, when it shows up like that for you and a wink. It's something loving every time. So before you finish this episode, I invite you to just pause for a second and think, what's one small thing that happened this week that felt a little too perfect? Don't overthink it. What's one text or one moment or one tiny detail that made you feel seen? That's it. That's a wink. Now, imagine if you started collecting those, like writing them down, telling your friends, looking for them on purpose. Who would you become if you truly believed life was responding to you? Now, the other day I was driving home through the slow quiet back country roads here in Tennessee and I kept thinking, this is it. This is the good stuff. The winks, the friendships, the field telepathic. After 25 years, the cruise invitations that land at exactly the right moment. That membership community calling me to collaborate in a new way. And the bishop guiding me back to my faith without even knowing it, because these tiny winks, they don't wait for someday or when everything is perfect. They show up when you need them. And I have to tell you, I think the universe has been showing off for me in 2026, but I have a feeling it's been doing that all along. We just have to slow down enough to notice. And maybe that's part of this too. Maybe the winks aren't just about feeling supported by something bigger. Maybe they're also about remembering that we're connected to each other. Because think about it, the crews that came through Friendship, the membership community that came through, someone building something and reaching out. Finding a place to practice. My faith came through. Someone from the church placed smack dab in the middle of my flight life, responds through people, through invitations, through connection. So here's something I want to ask you. If this episode felt like a wink to you, if it reminded you that you might not be carrying everything alone, would you share it with someone, text it to a friend? Because one thing I know is you've been the tiny wink for others and probably don't even know it. Let this be someone else's perfectly timed message. And if you've been listening for a while and this podcast has supported you in some way, leaving a review is one of the most powerful ways you can help it reach more dreamers just like you. It's kind of like adding another little light to the path for more people to find the show, for more people to feel less alone. And that ripple, it matters. And I want you to know I read every review and I feel every message, and they mean more than you know. So I just wanna thank you for being here, and thank you for slowing down with me today, and I hope this week. You notice the winks, the texts, the invitations, the tiny, perfectly timed moments. They might be quieter than you expect, but they're there and they're waiting for you to notice. Again, I hope you enjoyed this episode and I can't wait to welcome you back next week. Bye for now.

Carlene 13:58

Oh, and one more thing. This is the legal language. You know, the stuff that the lawyers put together, and they say that I need to read this to you. So here we go. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I'm not a licensed therapist. This podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professionals. Got it? Good. I will see you in the next episode.