Stress Less, Live More

Feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or constantly under pressure? You're not alone. In this episode of the ABCs for Leadership & Life Podcast, Lauren Miller explores what stress really is, how it affects your mind, body, and relationships, and why unmanaged stress can quietly rob you of your peace, purpose, and productivity.

You'll learn how to recognize the warning signs of stress before they escalate and discover practical, proven strategies to reduce stress and regain control of your life. You will learn how to move from reacting to life's pressures to responding with greater awareness, wisdom, and peace.

If you're ready to stop merely surviving and start thriving, this episode will equip you with simple tools to stress less and live more.

Become the boss of your stress instead of letting stress boss you around. 

Thank you for joining our podcast ABCs for Leadership & Life.

If today’s episode challenged your thinking or gave you a new perspective, don’t keep it to yourself—share it with someone who needs it.

Remember, leadership starts from within. When you become the boss of your thoughts and intentional in how you show up, everything begins to change.

For more tools, resources, and ways to grow, visit us at: https://chloupekconsultingservices.com and https://LaurenEMiller.Com 

And if you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe and leave a review—it helps us reach and impact more leaders just like you.

Until next time…love first, then lead. 

Jenn and Lauren

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome back to another ABC's for Leadership in Life podcast. We're so grateful for you that you're pushing the pause button to join us today. The fact that you are joining us today means that you will get something that you need for a lighter version of yourself today. So have confidence in that choice of your time. And we're really committed to help you grow in leadership and strengthen your mindset to become your best self here at the ABC's for Leadership and Life podcast. Literally living from the inside out versus the outside in. That is a key shift right there. And each episode brings you practical tools rooted in awareness, behavior, and connections. That's the ABCs to create lasting transformation of mind and the soul. You'll gain strategies to lead with clarity, communicate with purpose, and importantly, making a meaningful impact in whatever you're doing. So today is a hot topic, my friend. This is a um topic that that really, no matter what season you're going through, perhaps you can relate to it. And the title is Stress Less and Live More. Our intention or learning objective at the end of today's podcast is that you learn some specific tools as well as understanding what the heck is stress to become the boss of your stress instead of letting stress boss you around. You'll gain these practical tools to stress less, live more, and stay connected to what matters most. I am Laura Miller, and I am here with my dear friend, Jen Klopeck. And we're we were, as we always say, these these podcasts come out of our own first school experience. And we're thinking that perhaps you can relate to something that we're going to be having a conversation around today. Cool thing is, is Jen and I used to be elementary school teachers. Now we are in adult education, right? And so we we've often talked about this, but there's not much difference in terms of the insecurities we carry around, our desire to belong, be included, all of that. We had that literally on carpet time in kindergarten. And things have not changed much, my friends. We are dedicated to your freedom internally, which is why we're very intentional on the topics that we pick for today. And today's a very special podcast, too, because we're actually going to be dedicating it to someone. So, Jen, why don't you jump in and let listeners know who we're dedicating this podcast to?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Of course. And it is my my dear mother-in-law, uh Svetlana Klopek, who passed away not even a week ago. It's it's it's just been recent. And as you had shared the topic, Lauren, I thought, wow, what a model of a woman who might have stressed in her life, but she didn't really show that outwardly. And when you said the topic, and just with her recent passing, you know, before we even hopped on, I'm like, hey, listen, can we dedicate this to this woman? And she is an immigrant. She came from Serbia um years ago, you former Yugoslavia. And I think she was in her teens when she came to the states, and they were defected from the country. Her dad was second in charge and reported to Tito at the time. And so if we have any historians out there, is, you know, pretty high position. And he was in a concentration camp for years, and just everything that they went through and everything she experienced, you know, shaped who she is, but it also shaped how she responds to the world because they lived in some really, you know, dark times. And they had a beautiful estate, a flour mill over in Serbia at the time, and everything was taken away from them, stripped like nothing, and they weren't allowed to go back to the country. He worked at the embassy here in the States. Her father, and that's my husband's grandfather, spoke eight different languages, just a really amazing human being. I never got to meet him. But Svetlana really, like I said, experienced a lot in life and really lived inwardly and not outwardly. You know, it was just a model and a legacy she developed to not stress. And I even see that in my husband sometime. You know, he stresses, but he's like, hey, what part of worrying, you know, is that going to solve? And one of Svetlama's biggest tools was saying to me, hey, Jen, you know, if I see something or I disagree with something, I'll say something one time, but then I'm just gonna let it go. You know, I'm just gonna not worry about that thing anymore. Whether that was a kid thing, a grandkid thing, a friend thing, a relationship thing. She would state her opinion. And so she wouldn't acquiesce and not say anything about whatever was stressing her out, but she'd say, hey, I'll say my opinion one time. And then it lands in the other person's lap of like what they choose to do with that, and she's not going to butt in. And so I always remember that when we got married, she said, Hey, if I have an opinion about something, you know, I might share it. But then that's, I'm just gonna leave it there. I'm not gonna let it bother me or affect me. Um, so thank you for allowing us to to dedicate this podcast to this beautiful woman who is like the matriarch of the Klopec side of the family. And um, she will be greatly missed. I will say, and this is a side note, the one thing I cherished the most, and she was a trip. She said she was not a cook, but she made amazing dishes, Lauren. Very a lot of Eastern European dishes. And I got her treasured recipes. So when I went back to visit three weeks ago before she passed, I was able to take all of her handwritten recipes, and that's um, you know, memory of what I can do in honor of her, as well as dedicating this podcast. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Absolutely, Jen. And I love that that phrase that she used. I'm gonna mention it once and let it go, right? I have an a statement I often say, let go and let God. It's kind of a trite statement, though, to be honest with you, Jen, because sometimes I'll say that, but my biology doesn't do that, right? So I'll say let go and let God, I'll be like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, and then my my nervous system still holds on to things and and continues to push the replay button. And that's actually very biological. So I'm gonna start with the biology of stress. For those of you that are curious, what the heck happens to me when my heart starts to race, when I get into um repetitive thinking, storytelling, mind reading, all or nothing thinking, catastrophizing. Those are all bottom-up thinking in neuroscience and they're created by threat, right? And really, some of us have procrastination is actually uh fueled by a form of stress, right? Some of us will wait to the last minute until the stress or the threat gets high enough to take action, and it's just habitual. And the cool thing is, is we can flip that, right? We can learn new new ways of responding to life outside of us. Perhaps you've heard me mention this before if you've listened to the Edge Gut in podcast or previous podcasts. Stress is the power you give, it's the power power I give to outside circumstance to define your worth, your value, and what you believe you're capable of handling. Key thing is it's the power you give to outside circumstance, right? And the biology gets involved very quickly. The statement, be very careful what you think because your body is listening, is very, very true. If you see something as a threat, your body reacts very, very quickly. You have the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is your fight, flight, freeze. Is that a stick or a snake? Right? Hmm, I don't know. Well, the brain works for you right away and causes what's called the HPA access, and perhaps this is a little too much science for some of you. Basically, it tells the brain, hey, there's a threat, a potential threat, and then the stress response kicks in, restricts the frontal cortex, shoots the blood to the back part of the brain to your limbs, right? Takes the blood away from the major organs in terms of the parasympathetic nervous system to save you. The problem is, is it's not lions and tigers and bears anymore. It's not the actual real threat. The majority of what hijacks us on a daily basis is fear, self-doubt, and worry, right? And worry is a story we tell ourselves about something that has not happened in the future. Laughing. Yeah, it's crazy. You know, it's like we're and we're amazing storytellers. You know, Jen and I, as we often say, these are very organic topics. We have no script. We don't even have any fancy beginning to this podcast. It's just real boots on the ground. Here we go. This is what's happening. And perhaps you can relate to this. Perhaps you're coming to this podcast stressed out. Think about the last week. What hijacked you? What are you giving free rent to, right? Between your two ears, that you're and you keep pushing the replay button. You've heard me mention um the book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. Well, in nature, they reset their nervous system, it resets very, very quickly. After a lioness is on the butt of a zebra, it shakes it off, right? That's actually a stress relief technique to shake it off. We spoke about about that before in our last podcast. And then it returns to homeostasis very quickly. As human beings, we're more evolved, and it works for us and against us. We will sit there with a bag of popcorn and continue to push that replay button on whatever it is that we see as a potential threat. They said this, they didn't say that. How come they didn't include me? Uh, why did that happen to me? Why didn't that happen to me? Two things usually keep us up at night, worrying about how things will turn out and why things happened as they did. Interesting. Right? And it's all story. It's all based in story, it's the power we're giving to the outside circumstance. Now, we're not going to get too much deeper into the biology of the stress. Just know that you you become less intelligent in terms of executive functioning when you are in the threat response because you're in the survival response, right? So you have very limited, limited reactive choices. You know you've been hijacked by stress when those behaviors take the center stage from the reactive response. Typically, and not always, the three behaviors we muck around in are stonewalling, negative talk, right, and defensive behavior. Right. And many times it's inside between our two ears. We will be running a script and shooting all over ourselves. I should have done this, I should I need to do this. Those are all trap trapping statements because they keep us trapped and linked, hooked to the story. I should do this, I should do that. And that actual phrase comes from the same place in the brain, no shocker, as blame and shame. Right? So eliminate those words. That's your practice. Eliminate should, need to, have to. Replace it with a pause and ask, what do I want to do? What is aligned with what I value most? Stress increases when our behavior is not aligned with what we value most. Jen and I both ask our clients first session, what are your top three values? Right? What do you value most? And are your behaviors aligned with what you value most? Because that gives you a lot of clues and invitation for course correction. So remove should need to have to. That's a tip you can take right away. And just be aware of watching yourself when you do get hooked and your body responds to the threat. And what happens when you're less intelligent? I'm laughing because I'm thinking about me. And Jen and I talk about this. Jen, what happens to you?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Oh my goodness, Lauren. I'm sitting over here wanting to just crawl in my skin and talk and interrupt. And I'm so glad I haven't because you built the mental model and the and gave us the science. It's so funny. I was at a crafting event last night with some ladies. I love being creative and we were making homemade cards. And this one woman, Jan. Jan, I'm giving you a shout out. She listens and she said, Jen, I absolutely love your podcast. It's so relevant. And I and I and I share this when people say they love the podcast. I'm like, yeah, Lauren's the super smart one with all of the brain research and the neuroscience.

SPEAKER_02 12:59

And I'm the one who follows up with, okay, this is a stupid thing that I did that relates to your topic that I didn't handle very well in this situation.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

And so even yesterday, I had to share this with Jan. I'm like, Jan, you know, Lauren was talking last episode about tapping, and another woman named Cindy chimed in. She's like, oh my gosh, tapping's amazing. I was gonna get certified in the emotional freedom technique. And Jan's like, well, what is it? I'm like, you have to follow other of Lauren's, you know, podcasts or episodes. But I needed a little bit of some Lauren last night, and I did. I called. Um, you know, life's been lifing, I keep telling people and sharing, especially in my life. We had the passing of my mother-in-law, which you all heard about, but we also have in that whole situation, I started getting stressed out, and I'm an only child, and my parents live in Maryland, and that was just starting to weigh heavily on me. And I started worrying about that. So a couple weeks ago, I called up mom and dad, shout out to my mom and dad, and said, Hey, listen, would you ever entertain the opportunity of moving out to Arizona to be closer to me from Maryland? So that's, you know, cross-country relocation. And they said yes. So in the last two weeks, Lauren, we have house-hunted, we found a house, we put a contract down on a house, we did home inspection. Um, you can imagine all the stress that comes with that on both ends. And last two days, I guess the stress up until now, I've been okay with because I have been at peace and I've been practicing our strategies. Well, two days ago, I texted my dad and he said, I'm at urgent care with mom. She can't walk. So, again, throwing this into the mix of moving my parents cross-country. Now she can't walk. I am my dad and I thought she needed a hip replacement. They went to urgent care. Urgent care said, Yeah, you're bone-on-bone from the x-ray. Like, you need a hip replacement. Yesterday they go to the orthopedic surgeon, Larn, and the orthopedic surgeon's like, Oh, we didn't get the x-rays from urgent care, which actually threw my dad in a little bit of a tailspin. Like, what do you mean you didn't get the x-rays from urgent care? He started stressing, and the doctor's like, we can do redo x-rays. And so they redid the x-ray. Doctor comes back, says, You, your, your hip socket's fine. There is no bone-on-bone. There's no arthritis, there's no need for hip replacement. You have bursitis. That's what I think you have. And that's, you know, treatable. It's painful yet treatable. Well, yesterday I didn't hear that. I knew my dad had a doctor's appointment at 1.30 Eastern Standard Time. I didn't talk to him last night until about nine o'clock Eastern Standard Time. Between 1:30 Eastern Standard Time and 9 o'clock last night, I had my mom in emergency surgery in my head. I had her in the tens of care unit. I had my parents in the car because I mean all the unimaginable things that you could worry about not knowing. I was spinning out. And you happened to call me, and we were talking about this topic. And I'm like, there you go, Lauren. Here's what I get to share tomorrow with the group of how I didn't handle that very well. And I love what you said to me, Lauren. And it and it worked. You said, hey, Jen, it's okay to feel those feelings. It's okay to be worried. It's okay to be anxious, but you have to tell your parasympathetic nervous system, hey, I'm I'm feeling this feeling. I haven't heard from my dad. It's okay to feel like this. And that was just a mindset shift. Like I never thought to settle down my nervous system. And I want to replay the ending of the story. You know, did talk to dad and everything's fine. But, you know, I had my mom in a rehab facility, and, you know, they have a two-story house where she can't walk up steps. So, like you said, what do we do? We create a narrative and a story, and we give power away to all that time, energy, and effort. And I gave a lot of it away yesterday, and it impacted the way I felt, and it impacted the way I showed up to be in connection with other human beings last night. And that was swirling around until I found out the resolution, but I let it have more power over me than I probably should have allowed it to. And in my defense, I care and I love my parents. So there's that, Lauren.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, we are talking about just how God wired us, right? And uh, you know, it it's for our protection originally. Problem is, is we've allowed story to hijack us into these um dramas that continually replay threat. And therefore, we live in this anxious space between our two ears. All suffering occurs between the two ears because it's perception. Research from Yale shows that even naming emotions can reduce emotional intensity and improve um what we're talking about as regulation of your emotional system. It's it's referred to as affect labeling, which it's actually a psychological technique of putting feelings into words and identifying and naming the emotional experience, which is a huge part of EFT. That's why I'm such a huge fan of emotional freedom technique. Even though I'm feeling anxious, worried, upset, I'm willing to love and accept myself anyway. I'm willing to explore accepting myself because whatever we resist persists and gets bigger. And and just even I'm glad you brought that up, Jen, because it is really giving yourself permission to pause and accept. That's another tool. And so our words are one tool. Pausing and accepting is another tool. Just accept where you're at, right? And in any 12-step program, my name is Lauren, and this is the deal. I'm giving power to the situation, and it's continually hijacking me, and I'm losing sleep. And and once you do that, watch what happens with your biology. Just see what your body wants to do with that. Because as we've we've kind of referenced before, it's somatic experience, the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system are constantly pendulating. It's really the red and the blue. Red being the sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic is the blue, which is kind of the calm and regulation, but sympathetic is the threat response and protection. Right? And if you just give it the space to orient and resource, and then watch the red see what it wants to do. What does it want to do? Right? In my body, where do I feel this? Just giving yourself permission to accept it, give it space and attention, and see what happens. And so that's that's just the awareness piece. That's a very high, high level of somatic experience. However, it does come down to acceptance. Jen and I wrote a book called Stop Letting the World Be the Boss of You. And it's it's it's a faith-based perspective on the things that we allow to hijack us. And remember putting that book together, Jen?

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Yes, I do. Absolutely. And I remember being in a situation where something went down and I felt like the air, all the air in the room. I don't know if as listeners ever experienced this, but when something stresses you out or hijacks you, like all the air is sucked out of the room and things are going in slow motion. So we had real world experiences like that. I'm so glad you mentioned that book, Lauren. And and I don't know if you're going to mention this book, but I want to plug it for you because it's been so helpful for me. No one teaches us tools. Like we go through school, education, both of us have our masters, but no one teaches us of like how do we de-escalate ourselves unless you're seeing a therapist or psychologist, you know, a psychologist, psychiatrist, and they might teach you some of these things. But if you're just, you know, going around earth school and uh you don't get taught these things of what's my other options. But Lauren has an amazing book. It's it's called 99 Things to do before stressing out. I think that's the title, Lauren.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

99 things you want to know. You want to know before stressing out.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

I would suggest this book for all the listeners as well. But yes, I remember us writing that book and it was it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's interesting. Um, that book obviously comes from my own experience going through two of life's top stressors, advanced cancer and divorce. And what do you do when the outer world is crumbling around you? And perhaps that's you today, listener. You feel panicked. How will I survive this? Believe me, I have such compassion for that. When I was diagnosed and given five years to live at 38 with three young kids, I have a lot of compassion for that. And stay awake because the true lessons from life that develop the character that allows you to pick up the world like a child's toy come through the archway of suffering. I have found no other way. And it and to have techniques to be able to help your body. Regulate your emotions, regulate as you're going through trauma, hardship, challenges, difficulties is very, very powerful. So we've shared two this morning. Be careful, careful what you say. Your body's listening. So watch your words, should have to, need to. Now, what do you want to do? What's aligned with what you value most? Two, pausing and accepting affect labeling, meaning I feel anxious. Yeah, I feel that. Where do I feel that in my body? And where does it want to go? I'm willing to love and accept myself in the midst of that. And the tapping, of course, located at the base of your neck. There's a U-shaped dip. This is kind of a major circuit breaker by the thymus. If you just tap and focus on the exhale, that's that's another technique to help you get into the parasympathetic nervous system. I was actually meeting with a client that was in a um, he was uh AMT, or he was very familiar with being an EMT. I wasn't sure if he actually went through the training, but he knew about what they I think he did because he said they train you uh in emergency care to focus on the exhale. And I said, you know, it's so interesting in stress management. I've been in this field for 25 years. It was only when I started taking the training for somatic experience that I heard the theory behind the exhale, not the inhale. So focus on the exhale. In fact, exhale almost twice as long as your inhale when you're experiencing stress, and that helps to re-engage. It actually does help re-engage the parasympathetic nervous system. And it activates the vagus nerve, it lowers your heart rate, reduces your stress, and and actually signals to the brain safety. So try it, try that. Um, there's one extra tool, Jen, and I I know you and I have talked about this when we've when we've coached each other out of the whole holes of life, and that's appreciation. And this is actually linked to getting your mind off yourself. And I remember, I remember when um, and I I shared this story, but when I was going through advanced cancer, I I lost my hair, my breasts, my eyebrows, eyelashes, the whole physical appearance, and I had a really bad chemo. And a friend of mine brought me downtown to to visit, and this is a repeat story from another podcast, uh, one of Mother Teresa's nuns who gave me the wisdom, um, don't waste your suffering. And she was very clear on that. Um, and said, When you feel the suffering, lift it up for the sake of other people and and and for the sake of their suffering, right? Because there's other people suffering. And and a dear friend of mine, Johnny Erickson Todd, I was just texting her yesterday. She is a quadriplegic, 17 years old, and she just released a book called Keeping Faith When Life Hurts. She has been in a wheelchair since she was 17. I really relate to Johnny because she was really active in horseback riding and really an athlete. And then she she had to um readjust, right? And uh come back inside and give more authority and strength to to the presence of God within her than the circumstance outside of her. And she's she's one of my mentors and someone I really look up to in life because she's in her 70s now, and she has to wait every morning, right? Her husband leaves, and for an hour she waits until her dear friend comes in to get her out of bed, right? To to wash her, brush her teeth. From the neck down, she can't do anything. And so again, and I know Johnny's huge on this too, and this is what I was told by that that nun is think about other people in the midst of your stress because it gets your mind off of yourself. I've heard this inside, you know, I think it's the Holy Spirit knocking me upside the head saying, Stop thinking about yourself and peace will return. And there's a lot to be said for that, right? And so, so actually, appreciation and gratitude increase oxytocin, right? Which give you confidence and emotional connection. And there's there's a technique that is suggested in the field of stress management to send a note, a text, or a verbal message of appreciation to another person when you are going through a stressful situation. And be very specific. Don't just say, Hey, I appreciate you. Because they've studied this on the brain. When you get very specific, like I appreciated what when you took the trash out yesterday, even though you were sick, and you still did it because you knew I had a long day, and I just wanted to acknowledge that and appreciate what you did. So that's part of your homework out there in Earth School. Look for opportunities to appreciate another human being because you get the benefit of that, right? This is science in your body, and I don't care the motives as to why you do it, because you'll get hooked on it. And it's it's really it it almost becomes like a daily desire. Like, hey, what can I do for another human being today to lighten their load? How often do you think about that? Because we're thinking of our load as soon as our eyes open up. And man, I have a lot of compassion for you, listener. I don't know what you're going through today, I don't know what stress you're experiencing, I don't know what undesirable situation you're encountering. And I can honestly say I have compassion for you and the situation simply because I've suffered. Right? And that's the shared human experience. And so learning tools to help your body, right, be able to recalibrate to a place of safety, even though this is happening. Jen, we were talking about death because I faced my own death, and I had to really, I really wrestled with that, right? Leaving three young kids. Um, you had mentioned about your your mother-in-law.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Yeah, and and and you know, the end of life, you could have different reactions. I'm stressed of, hey, I know that I have a couple of weeks here left on earth. I could be stressed out and and and in and the end result, but she wasn't. She had this peace never expressed, I don't want to die, you know, I don't, you know, I don't know where I'm going. I think she I know she had that faith of where she was going and she had that hope that there was an afterlife. There was a whatever you call it, a heaven, you know, that there isn't somewhere. So um that was that was her belief. And she walked through that so peacefully. And I think that is a true sign of courage, of surrendering, of not being stressed out, of knowing that something's greater than me, and I have full faith in that. And honestly, if you have to sum up all three of these tools, I think that's probably for me the most powerful one saying, hey, this stress, this situation's greater than I am. I do need to surrender this. I am a praying woman. So I need to remember the best tool for me is to go to prayer. Although that's not the first thing that I do.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

I give other people to say, hey, pray for me or do this, but I'm like, I'm doing that for my symbol.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Yeah. And me being also, I've mentioned my own years ago, you and you walked through this with me in 2021, Lauren, with my menirs disease, being in a very, very dark place, you know, and hoping that honestly I would die and not have to wake up every day. Yeah. I mean, I'm being truthful with the listeners. That's I was I was so sick. Um, and I remember you saying, Lauren, you shared that with me of that appreciation and don't waste your suffering. And there was a woman, I wish I could remember her name. I I think it's it's Kathleen Wolf. I'm not sure. She was a supermodel early in her career. Um, I think Target had contracted with her, just a beautiful woman. And she had a baby, and then a couple weeks later she had a stroke. I mean, an almost book. Yeah, because I shared her with you, Lauren. She's amazing. Amazing. And I won out and I read all the books of other people who have who have suffered. And it kind of was like, hey, and your book, your other book too, um, hearing his whisper was a huge, amazing gift as I was walking through all of that as well. So I know you asked that question of, you know, that that peace. So so what did you experience or what are your what are your thoughts around that?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah, again, it's um I just have a simple prayer every day that, dear God, help me to remember you're bigger than this. Whatever this is that hits me today, help me to remember you're bigger than it. Right. And um again, I know we have listeners that that don't, you know, practice the same faith walk that we do. And I'm moved to even say explore something bigger than yourself. The work that we've been doing and working with human beings through all kinds of suffering, right? Um, it's a huge resource. And even in addiction, right, trauma, it's connecting to something bigger than yourself, right? And giving that more authority than you do the circumstance, and then looking I just remember that say that one that one liner, stop thinking about yourself and peace will return. And people will say, Well, it's hard not to because I'm in such pain. Hey, I get it. I get it. I've been there. And one step at a time, looking for opportunities to to lift it up for the sake of somebody else who's suffering, right? That appreciation and doing something for somebody else, a note, um, a word of encouragement. Um, it's amazing when we do stop thinking of ourselves, how peace does return. It's amazing to me, Jen. You and I have talked about this.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

And honestly, we haven't mentioned it, and I don't want to mention it because I know we have limited time and we want to stick to a half an hour. But as you were talking, Lauren, and sharing that last toll about appreciation, Lauren and I are both executive coaches, and we have our designation in the International Coaching Federation Professional Coach Certificate. The eighth competency for executive coaches to work through with their clients, that last one is facilitating client growth. And part of that is celebrating and evoking awareness. And so when you were sharing that, write another note of appreciation, be very specific to share with another person. That's actually really good coaching technique. That's a great leadership technique. All of the ICF eight competencies can apply, whether you're a coach or you're just a leader in an organization. And I just hopped off a final meeting with one of my clients and with the president of one of a company that I'm working with. I mean, he's the president of a huge company that you would know the name. And he was like, Yeah, he shared with the client. Like, I don't celebrate success. I don't tell you the great job you're doing sometimes. And that's that appreciation. And he said, I'm gonna be very specific, to give you specific examples of when you are doing something well, and I'm gonna share exactly instead of saying, Hey, so-and-so, I appreciate you for this, he's gonna say, Hey, so-and-so, I appreciate you for this, and here's why. And so I think that's so important in life to do. Um, yeah, and it just takes a minute and it could lighten up someone's life. I and uh the other thing, and Joni, Johnny Erickson taught it, that story. I heard that story when I was growing up, Lauren. And I don't even know if I shared this with you. It was she lived on the East Coast, so I think that was in Ocean City, Maryland or on the eastern shore somewhere. And that story stuck with me for life. And I remember, you know, as a little chumble thinking about how much if that ever happened to me, what would I do? How would I show up? And at one point in her life, she would paint and um amazing pictures. She does listeners, like it's like she doesn't let anything stop her. Um, I also think of my own husband who doesn't have a lay, you know, and so he doesn't let things stop him and is in the Guinness Book of World Records for numerous things. Um, so yes, I know we're at the top of the hour, Lauren, and and and we've got to go. But thank you, listeners, for joining in today. We appreciate you. We hope we we were sharing all of this, not because we know better than you, but we're walking through this with you and we understand, and we just want to offer the tools and the resources to help you in your journey.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Absolutely. Well said. Well said. So just to recap a little bit, watch the words. Your body is listening, remove the shoulding and move to what your values are and what you want, right? Where you feel that in your body, and then focus on accepting where you're at, loving and accepting yourself, tapping on the thymus, as well as that permission to pause and say it's okay to feel this way right now, and then appreciation, right? When you stop thinking of yourself, peace returns. And so that's a wrap for today. Thank you for joining us. If you appreciate this podcast and you feel that there's some tools in here that are helpful for people that are entrusted to your care, please share it. We're just getting going. This is only our fourth podcast, and really our intention is to be able to empower people with awareness, shift in behavior, so that they can make more powerful connections. So appreciate your time today and um yeah, have fun out there. Stress less and live more.