Wintering On Purpose And Returning With Energy

Transcript

Welcome And A Habit Wake-Up

Debra 0:04

Welcome to the D Times 2 podcast, hosted by Sisters Denise and Deborah. We are all about finding balance in the various parts of life. Using the Wheel of Life as our guide, we explore how to keep each spoke rolling smoothly. We discuss health and wellness, education and spirituality, as well as mental and emotional growth. Join us for real conversations, practical tips, and a few laughs as we share stories, insights, and strategies to help you create a life that feels balanced, purposeful, and designed by you. Hey Deborah. Hi Denise. How are you today? I'm doing well. The sky is blue, the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming. It's gorgeous. Makes for a really good day. I want to say, as I pulled up to your house today, I thought, oh, this is so pretty. You have daffodils in bloom and bundles of tulips in bloom. It just looks so fresh and cheerful. It makes my heart happy. Yes. Yeah. So I have a story to share. Please share. It's kind of a learning story. I tend to share those kinds, I think. But like the last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy weather around here. You missed it because you were gone, but it's been like super windy and cold, and it snowed overnight one time. And I usually go for a walk in the morning. Yeah. After my exercise routine. And I haven't I haven't gone for my walk. Last Saturday was a good warm day, and my husband said, Hey, let's go for a walk. And I was like, okay. He said, Are you gonna? I usually record a message or something when I give a take a walk. And he said, Are you gonna record? I said, No, I haven't all week because I haven't been walking, and he was shocked. And it kind of made me think about my habits that even when I don't know, there's some weather I just don't want to walk in. When it's 30 mile an hour winds, I don't want to go out and walk. Denise, I don't either. And I have seen you out walking and thinking, I am on my treadmill today. Yeah. Because I'm not walking in that. Yeah, and my husband's like, you walked all winter. Yeah. But we didn't have 30 mile an hour winds in the winter. We had cold. Cold is easier for me than the wind. Anyways, I decided even if I'm not gonna walk outside, I probably should go walk inside to have access to a treadmill in two different places, and I should just go do that. So I repented this week. Okay. Good girl. And plus the sun is coming up earlier, so I don't have to it just push my walk later in the day. Anyway, so there is a way to get done the things you want to get done. So I've I am I am repenting and will and will continue to find a way to walk. Because I really do like it, and it gives me the morning light and everything, but the walking is good. It is better if we can outside, but sometimes we just can't. Yeah. So that's my that's my share. My husband caused me to think about what I was doing. I like how you kind of wrap that up with there is a way. I am a firm believer there is always a way. You might have to get creative, you might have to be a little bit unorthodox. But there's almost always a way to do a thing if you want it badly enough. Marie Forlio, she has a saying, she says all the time, everything is figure outable. Yep, figure it out. If you want it badly enough, you'll figure it out. Very true. But sometimes we want an easy excuse. I, yeah. 30 mile an hour wind wasn't was a good excuse, but I should have gone and done it somewhere else. So yeah. Your turn. Okay.

Wintering And Life Seasons

Debra 3:56

All right. So what are we talking about today, Deborah? Today it actually ties in a little bit with what you were just talking about because we are coming to the end of winter season. I'm gonna say season. Technically, are we in spring yet? We are in spring. I forget I've been uh checked out. I've been on vacation the last two weeks, and my brain has been on vacation deliberately. Like I have not looked at a calendar, I haven't looked at my phone hardly, like, so yes, we are in spring. We started it just before I left. Yeah, that's right. But I was thinking about the seasons in life and how we mimic them with the seasons that we actually experience in the world. So we are coming out of winter where everything looks dead, but coming into spring where everything is freshly a bloom and life is coming back. So I wanted to just kind of liken that to those natural rhythms in our lives. It's also been on my mind because I've been on vacation. And so for me, that was a shorter season to deliberately, I'm gonna say go dormant, like things do in the winter, where I just stepped away from the busyness, the normal, the everyday everything to replenish myself. So let's break that down. Sounds good. I did some talking points here for both of us, so you can help me with it. But I'm thinking of winter as a season of stillness. So it's when nature intentionally slows, the trees go dormant, the roots underneath the soil strengthen, but to the world above, everything looks still or dead. We as people are often conditioned to move, produce, be busy, optimize non-stop. But sometimes the greatest progress actually starts with an intentional pause. So we create a winter season of stillness, a pause in our lives. Is that tracking for you? Tracks for me. Okay. Trees, trees do go dormant, like the world goes dormant. No matter what kind of climate you're in, there's a dormant-ish type period. And it's when vegetation and or and animals go quiet. But in that quiet, they are growing. You just can't see it. It's yeah, it's it's not visible, but there are things below the surface that's happening. It's like I think of the duck. On the surface, it's still and calm and nothing, but underneath it's paddling frantically just to do what it needs to do. You can't always see the underneath. But the underneath is as important as the continued active busyness during the other seasons. Yeah, very true. So I just want to reinforce that being still or pausing or hibernating or going dormant, however you want to think of it, it isn't stagnation, it's preparation. I like that preparation. Will you help me discuss why this matters? So

Why Stillness Changes Everything

Debra 7:13

why the wintering process or the pausing process matters? I'd be happy to. So one benefit, one key benefit of quote unquote wintering is so that you can recharge your inner resources, which is what you just touched on. Like we're recharging ourselves. Just as the immune system replenishes during rest, like when you're sick, it's good to rest, to take a nap, to go to bed early. Our emotional and mental reservoirs refill during stillness. I want to say our physical, emotional and mental reservoirs refill. That's true. As a whole being, we recharge. And we like to talk about sleep. We we do. And like that, just you just mentioned the immune system. We talked all about that in episode eight. But that's when the magic happens, is when you're sleeping because the body is hard at work doing other things. And it's not that you have to sleep. Like when you're sick, it's good to sleep, but it's just stepping back so your inner resources can recharge, like what we said. I want to talk to you about my ice cream I have almost every night for dessert. I started making it about six months ago with some of my very favorite protein powder. It's from Equip Foods Prime Protein, and it's one of the safest, cleanest, doctor-formulated protein powders that helps to build muscle and shred fat that won't leave you gassy or bloated. That's one of the problems I have with other kinds of proteins. Anyway, it's 100% grass-fed and finished. I make my protein out of their chocolate and their peanut butter. So it's my amazing peanut butter chocolate protein ice cream. It helps me meet my protein goals and taste amazing. To get a nice discount, go to equipfoods.com slash dx2 to get 30% off of a subscription order or a nice 15% discount off of a one-time order. You'll love it. Another key benefit is that you can clarify what truly matters. So you unplugged for two weeks. I did. And you could I think that when you do that, you totally can get more clear on things that matter in your life. I yes. I mean, I came back with clear steps in my head as to the direction I want to go, the things I want to eliminate or shift in my life. There are times in my life when I've done like a social media fast. Same. And it's amazing how much clearer your thinking is. So in the absence of constant activity, checking our phones, seeing what's going on in the world, even listening to the radio or podcasts, even listening to something good and uplifting, it's still constant activity. So when we take a step back from that, priorities come into a sharper focus, like pruning a tree. And we've talked about that before. Yeah. When you prune a tree, new things grow. So when you step back and kind of quiet things, new things grow in your mind and heart, and you can focus better. Another key benefit is building resilience. I just want to interject with the what you were just talking about, with the clarifying what truly matters. And in the stillness or in the moments of pause, a lot of people will say, you know, my best ideas come to me when I'm in the shower. Yeah. It's because you're not doing all the other stuff, and you can now channel and have that clarity of what actually matters. Because you're literally removed from being able to do all the other stuff. Very true. Yeah. Very true. I keep thinking I need to buy some of those like little kid bathtub crayons and put in my shower so I can write on the wall the ideas that I come. All the ideas that come. Yeah. That's probably a little bit too much information, but hey, it's a great idea. Okay, key benefit number three is to build resilience. Stillness gives your nervous system a chance to settle, strengthens stress intolerance, and enables better responses later. So it's the unplugging that allows your nervous system that's under constant input to almost restart. So that's also like that's a big topic in the world right now. People are becoming aware of nervous system regulation. I have been asked about it so many times recently. Basically, most of us are stuck in fight or flight. That's the nervous system, stuck with the gas pedal down and a brick on top of the gas pedal. During this time of stillness is when that brick comes off, the gas pedal comes up, the brick goes on, and we can focus on rest, repair, recover. The nervous system actually downregulates and shifts. I said it in a different way to Tom when we were on vacation. I like we were probably two days in, and I said, I feel like I have just like amped down. Everything just settled down. I bet that felt great. It was amazing. I knew I needed it and I knew I'd been looking forward to the removal from the everyday and being able to just unplug and every bit of me down regulated, settled, and just chilled out. Good. Did you feel like it was the 1980s?

unknown 12:53

I did. I did.

Debra 12:55

It was spectacular in the old days. Yep. Yeah. So our nervous systems are are constantly on atta in attack mode and being attacked. So it's important to step back and let that calm. Another benefit, let's talk about this one. Boosting creativity and insight. Oh, that's true. So that goes back to the ideas in the shower. It does. Yeah. Because quiet moments allow your subconscious ideas to come to the top. They percolate to the top, and you can see better. I think it adds clarity. Yeah, because that subconscious mind is always back there working. And I think sometimes it's like trying to put its hand up, trying to get noticed, and we just never allow for it because we're in the present conscious moment all the time. And if we'll just let it surface, light bulbs will go off. Yeah, your creativity, insight into your life, and world will increase. Okay, the last key benefit in this area is that you can avoid burnout before it happens. Yep. When you take a step back and just kind of winter yourself, quiet yourself. You can avoid burnout. Yeah. So our dad has a saying. He always says, you do it by choice or you do it by default. This is doing it by choice. Before the default is thrust upon you. Yes. We like to do things by choice. That's what our whole podcast is about is living our life by choice on purpose. Yeah. It sure is. Let's not default into anything if we have any say in it and can avoid it. Yeah. Don't default into what the world and your surroundings are putting on you. Default into what works in your life and default into some winter behaviors to help yourself. The wintering or the pause or stillness, what does that really look like? I'm gonna say there's two different ways to look at it. One is active stillness, and the other is passive stagnation. We don't want that one. We want to avoid stagnation. So what does active stillness look like? It's an intentional rest, it's doing some reflection or some journaling. It can be just taking slow walks in nature, not speed walks, not exercise walks, slow walks in nature. It can be something like gentle breath work. We've talked about all of these things, but the they're all active stillness. And then also mindful tech breaks like I just did, or scheduled quiet time. That mindful tech breaks, I've actually been working

Active Rest Versus Stagnation

Debra 15:52

on that the last couple of weeks because like I'm home by myself a lot, a lot. And so I I listen to podcasts that I can learn from. Yeah. And I realize that even in listening to those podcasts, my mind is not getting a chance to be quiet. So I've dialed back how many, what things I'm listening to, even though they're really good. Right. So that I can hear my own thoughts and let that come to me. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing that we have talked about before is the activations app. Yes. The activations app is well, it's kind of a passive slash active. Like you can listen to it while you're doing something else, which I just said I'm trying not to do. But these are shorter. They're, you know, they're anywhere from three minutes to 20 minutes to help get your mind going where it should go. Yes. So I am going to say, I I I mentioned it before, I use that app a lot, the activations app a lot. We did get you guys a discount code. So check our resources for that. But one of the things that I love to use in it, other than like the active meditations that have words and like you're thinking about stuff, is there are some that are, I'm gonna say, just background music that deliberately work with your brain beats. Yeah. So the alpha, delta, like all of the different beats. There's one I listened to almost the whole flight home from Florida. So it was a five-hour, 20-minute flight, and I had angelic peace going on. That is a really good one in my headphones. So it was just music, it was just settling my mind and my nervous system because airports are stressful to me. Being on the plane with all the noise and all the people is stressful to my physiology. So I put my noise canceling earphones on and put on angelic piece and just let it go on repeat. It wasn't necessarily making your brain go, it was a calming influence on you. So my brain could still do what it wanted to do and think of the things it wanted to, but it was calming. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's true. That's why headed into the season, I really recommend that people use the fat reduction package from Optimal Health. It breaks free from the cycles of cravings, stalled progress, and it uses science-backed approaches to weight loss. It targets nutrients that work together to help you feel your best while achieving your goals. Sounds good to me. It also helps control your hunger. It has fermented fiber that supports appetite regulation and makes healthy eating easier, which we need during the holidays. It does, but it also blocks fat storage. So it supplements the body to prevent you from storing fat and helping you shed unwanted pounds naturally. Nice. It also helps you boost your metabolism. Lipase, patented chromium, and herbs like berberine. Berberine is all the rage, right? Yep. Helps metabolize fat and sugar for sustained energy. So it's a complete balance of pure protein, essential fats, and carbs that simplifies balanced nutrition while supporting weight management. You can get your fat reduction pack at optimalhealthsystems.com and use the code D times2, that's DX2, to get a great discount. So the other side of that is the passive stagnation. Let's not do that. What does that look like? Procrastination or avoiding making decisions out of uncertainty or fear. Like it's just easy to put things off. It can also be things like emotionally numbing. So think about scrolling or doom scrolling and just looking at other stuff. Even like I think of Netflix and just letting the show you're watching roll into the next one and the next one. You're emotionally numbing and emotionally detaching. It can also be exhaustion disguised as busyness. So you're so busy living your life, doing all the things that are surface level important, but not truly important, that you are physically and emotionally exhausted and you don't think you have time for anything else, but it's just disguised as the busyness. It can be very dangerous and it can be very easy to be into that stagnation part without being deliberate about being still. So it's a conscious thing. And yes, sometimes we're all human. We just start scrolling, and then in 10 minutes or an hour have gone by and we realize what we're doing. Pick yourself up, move on. Yep. Try to be more deliberate about things. Let's talk about number four. Yep. We have action steps. We love action steps. We do to be intentionally still. So what can we do to live our life on purpose and be intentional about our stillness? We can schedule a stillness block weekly. So what can that look like? It can look like 15 to 30 minutes of dedicated silence. Might have to work up to that one. It can look like reflection, like taking this is a good thing, like I think on Sunday afternoons. Take a reflection time. Just look back at your last week and see how things went. And as an observer, not as a judge. So just observe what your last week looked like with no judgment. It can look like prayer, and prayer you can do anytime, anywhere, every day, right? Journaling. You can do anytime, anywhere.

Simple Stillness Practices That Work

Debra 22:03

You've got we all have little little computers in our pockets on your phone, in an actual notebook. Yeah. However you want. A notebook would be best, but you can journal or meditation. And it can be quiet meditation or the activations app, like we've talked about. It has they have guided ones on there. It's great. And then make it non-negotiable. Like you make the commitment to yourself that I'm going to do this. This is a priority. Yeah. You decide I am the type of person that does this and then do it. So you mentioned Sunday afternoon specifically is a time that you think of to naturally do that. And I am the same. It is a day of rest. We are less busy on that day, or should be less busy on that day. So it can be a natural time to do it. It can also be in the evening before you go to bed. So you mentioned weekly, you can do a short one daily. That's true. That's good to do. Look back at your day. No judgment. Just look back at it. And then make a decision about what to do the next day. Well, yeah. What would I like tomorrow to look like? Another thing we can do is track our energy rhythm. And what does that look like? So it looks like noticing when you feel drained versus when you feel energized. So what's draining you and what's feeding you? And then you can honor those patterns of draining and energy instead of being forced to be productive all the time. Just notice things. So I would want to say for a little while I felt like I couldn't figure out what was draining me. So I used two different technological devices to help me with that. I, for one, wore an aura ring for quite a while, and that gave me some good insights as to what was stressing me, what was helping me recover. But I wanted additional information, so I paired it with a Garmin fitness tracker watch. That gave me different insights, but putting the two sets of data together helped me figure out what was actually happening. Some people can tune in better than that without using technology. I needed it. I couldn't figure it out. Yeah, I remember that. You would share with me your Garmin readout, and it was crazy. It was crazy. Yes, it was very, very, very unusual. But it gave you the information that you needed to be able to help yourself. Yes. So find out, notice when you feel drained, notice when you feel energized, and what's feeding those. Something else we can do is a minimalism check-in. So what commitments are draining you? What can you get rid of in your life that's just draining your energy? Or what things are draining you? So sometimes it's my house is too big. It takes too much energy to keep it clean and tidy and furnished like I want it to do, you know, want to do. Maybe I need to downsize. Or it can be, I have three closets full of just my clothing. I don't need all of this. It's overwhelming to the system because it's always there. Give some of it away. Clear some clear some stuff out, be a little more minimal. And I'm gonna say de-influenced. Instead of influenced to buy all the new things, get de-influenced and just find stuff that you can maybe pull out. So it also looks like if you have children in your home, no matter what age they are, like how many things are they scheduled to do? And is it overwhelming to you and your family to schedule though all of those things and make sure your kids are doing all of the things? They may be good, they may be fun, but are they serving you and serving your family? Those are some thoughts if you've got children in your home. Yeah, that matters. There are sometimes we can pause activities that may be making us feel like we're drained, and we can just pause them for a little while. Or we can prune things like a tree. Just cut them out. Sometimes you need to cut them out, but sometimes it can just go on the side for a little bit. It's okay to do. Never beat a dead horse. That saying has been around for a long time for a reason. People that are drinking energy drinks all day long just to stay functional, that's what they're doing. They are beating themselves up like they were a dead horse. We gotta stop doing that. The only energy drink that I recommend to my clients is update. It's clean energy without caffeine, so you don't have jitters and chaos and like the problems that caffeine causes in the body. And it also helps to give you focus and a clear mind. It's really the one I use and the one I recommend. To get a discount off of your order, go to drinkupdate.com and use the code DX2. That's D times 2. That's us. So drinkupdate.com and then the code for your discount is DX2. So something else we can do is a seasonal retreat. Oh, I don't know about Deborah. Actually, I do. We like retreats. We love them, yes. And it's good to do that to retreat from things from time to time. You don't have to go somewhere, you don't have to spend any money. You can just do a weekend digital detox. That's a retreat. You can walk out in nature, that's a retreat. Or you can extend a morning ritual at home. So I don't know what you what your morning looks like, but mine looks like I get up and I exercise and I go for a walk. And then I come home and the next little bit is is my time to take care of me spiritually and mentally. And I can shorten that or lengthen that depending on what my demands are on my life at the time. I'm gonna say this can look a lot different for different people because there are like I

Retreats Gentle Movement And Timing

Debra 28:33

like to do those things in the morning as well, but sometimes I deliberately do them at night because the morning is too busy. Getting up, getting out of the house, getting to work, all the things I have lined up. It's just too, it would be too much. I would stress my system more if I got up earlier to do it or tried to force it in. So I will schedule it in in the evening instead. That is a good time if you have to go to work early, or if you have children that you have to get up early and take care of. A nighttime retreat into your bed, read a book, into your bath, listen to something good, or just be quiet. Yeah, just a small retreat. It can be whenever you want it to be. And like you said, you don't have to go somewhere, but you can go somewhere. The last suggestion in this one is to have gentle movement over hustle. Sometimes we just need to slow down. Moderate movement supports our immune system a lot better than hustle hustle. Gentle walks during rest phases help us emotionally without exhausting us. There's a time and a place for all of it. So know your time and know your place and do what's appropriate for you. But when you're trying to have active stillness, those gentle walks or tai chi or flow yoga, anything like that, is gonna be more settling and still to the to the body. Easier movement. Let's just kind of start wrapping this whole thing up by reframing stillness or the wintering as strength. Stillness is not doing nothing, it is restructuring for growth. So back to the winter trees. They look dead, but their roots are growing deeper. The tulip bulbs, there was nothing happening for months and months and months. Now the green came up, the blooms are blooming. Like things are happening under the surface. Sleep seems passive, but it's when the body heals and repairs and recovers. So our our bodies are pretty cool. When we are being still, it decreases the load on all of the bajillion things happening on the inside of our body that we don't know, we don't realize, we don't have any can, we don't have any conscious control over. They just happen on the body. They just happen. And so when we are quiet and still, our body's internal stuff going on

Bloom With Clarity And Strength

Debra 31:09

can ramp up and and and be better. So let's talk about it as we pause, which leads to renewal, which leads to refocusing, which leads to the bloom. Okay, so pausing is stopping the autopilot, embrace intentional quiet. That leads us to the renewal, which is where we replenish the physical, emotional, and mental reserves. That renewal leads us to the refocus, which is when we reevaluate our priorities and grow and goals. And then we bloom. So we return with intention, clarity, and energy. I'm gonna say more vibrancy and color. I love that analogy. We talked about my tulips. Yeah. And they are dormant, they sleep for most of the year. Most of the year, but they're doing stuff, they're reproducing, they're getting strength to their bulb stuff. Did you know they're my favorite? Tulips are my favorite flower, and I think it's because it's such a sign of everything coming back to life. That is one reason we planted so many. We've lived here for 19 years, and the first thing we did, first thing we planted were tulips. We have probably have a hundred tulip bulbs out there. They are just my reminder that winter is coming to an end and life is going to be vibrant, beautiful. But they needed the winter. They have to winter. Yeah. As do we. We want to encourage all of you listening to see winter in your lives as natural, necessary, and strategic. You need that time in your life. And it doesn't have to be just in the winter season of the world. You can have a winter season, as we've talked about, little winter snack times. That's what I feel like I just had. I was on vacation for two weeks and it was one of those winter snacks. Like I paused, I reset, I refocused, I'm That's okay to do. So when you come back from that pause, however long that pause is, whether it's 30 minutes or two weeks or six months, a season or two, that you can bloom and you can be more vibrant and full of life when you come back. Just remember that stillness is a skill. It's not a luxury. We have to practice it. But it's one that prepares us to bloom deeper and stronger and also more authentically when the season turns. You can be a true tulip when you bloom. Yep. Any color you want. Yep. Just make sure you do the things that you need to in order to bloom. Thank you, Deborah. Yeah, that's it. I like that. It's been rattling in my head, and I hope it came across as clearly as I hoped it would. Yeah, it's good to take that pause. I like the winter snack. Yep. Yeah, me too. So if you found anything helpful, useful, anything to help you grow in your life, please leave us a comment. We'd love to hear your comments. Like and share our episode. Yeah, there are for sure people in your life that need to hear the message. And we we can only get this out to the masses with your help. So please share. And then also remember that we always have resources available for you on our somewhere in our show notes, but always on our website, d times2podcast.com. So that's dxtupodcast.com. There are free resources, there are discount codes, there are a few paid resources, but all of the things that we have curated to help you have a more balanced life. Yeah, so that activations we talked about, we have a discount code for you to use that. It's a fantastic resource. Love it so much. Yeah. Okay, so until next time, keep your will rolling smoothly. Ciao. Bye. Thanks for listening to the D Times 2 podcast with Denise and Deborah. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share it with someone who's ready to roll toward a more balanced life. Your support means the world to us. And just a quick note we're sharing our own experiences and ideas, not professional advice. Always do your own research and talk to a qualified expert before making big decisions. Until next time, keep your wheel rolling strong.