Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 645 of The Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast! I’m Heidi and I am so glad you’re here. It’s so fun to get to share a few minutes twice a week getting to work on being our best self, which always always starts in our head and that is why I love doing this podcast is because it keeps my head in the game right along with you, so thank you for coming back or thank you if this is your first episode….be sure to follow the show so you don’t miss an episode they are quick and happen twice a week once on Monday and once on Friday….OK
My brother’s sweet dog Wrigley passed away kind of unexpectedly this last week. He was such a good boy—full of energy and love, loyal and happy. If you’re a dog lover, you know exactly how that loss hits. It leaves this little empty spot.
As I was talking to my little sister about it, she mentioned that Her dog Prescott is right around the same age Wrigley was, and she told me, “I don’t know how I’m going to handle it when his time comes…I told her she will handle it by moving through it, just like we handle most of the hard things life sends our way, we keep moving forward one step at a time, because in the end, you would not change that he was in your life, just because it will be painful when he’s not. No the joy he brings every single day is so worth it.
And that’s how it goes, right? We wouldn’t change the good times just so we don’t have bad times…..even though our brains would have us try if we aren’t careful. We couldn’t even if we tried anyway because that’s life.
There’s ups and downs, chaos and peace for every human’s life. There’s Contrast everywhere—showing us what we love and what we don’t. This is how life is supposed to be. It has to be, because it’s how it is for every single one of us. It’s part of the human experience.
The main difference is how we respond—and how we choose to look at things. Our human brains love to tell us we somehow got it worse. That our life is harder than everyone else’s. We look around and think, “They have it so much easier.” But comparison is one of the worst things we can do. Because none of us truly knows what anyone else is carrying. We only see pieces.
When we hammer it all down, we all have things that aren’t great… and we all have things that are beautiful. The way we look at our own life can shift everything.
We do this dance in so many seasons, don’t we? We fall completely in love with our little kids, knowing one day they’ll leave for college or move away, and that empty-nest ache is already whispering. We watch our parents get older, treasuring every visit while quietly bracing for when things might change or we have to say goodbye. We pour our hearts into careers, friendships, homes, whole chapters we know won’t last forever.
And sometimes our brains are so dramatic….When we lose that precious little fur baby our brains say “never again will I love something so much because it hurts too much when they leave” or you say to yourself “ill never get over losing my parents or the kids leaving for college…nothing will ever be the same. Normal brain behavior. And perfectly normal in the processing of feelings….we want to process the feelings, but we don’t want to live there, we don’t want to put our anchor down there. We can honor the memory and also know at the same time that we will eventually be ok. We want to keep an open space for the memory of all the joy and love and fun so that there’s hope that in some way we can feel that again. In whatever way that means. There’s a never ending dance of old doors closing and new doors opening in everyone’s life. Wishing for things to always stay the same is fighting against reality. Every single day is a new page in our life, and sometimes we turn the page to a new chapter and it feels like a big leap and then sometimes it’s like we’ve finished a book and we flail around thinking what now, but once we remember we are in control….we realize that we get to choose what the next book is. We are in that dance constantly. And as long as we view it as a never ending dance, we aren’t completely derailed when things change. Because change is the only thing that is consistent in our lives, so the better we are at adapting, the easier life gets. It doesn’t mean we don’t grieve for things lost, it just means we don’t want to plant our roots there. Viewing it as the dance of life, where life is always showing us new ways to feel whole again.
My meditation teacher once shared a poem about Finisterre—a place in Northwest France where the land ends and the ocean begins. I am very visual and the image of the land ending and the ocean beginning was powerful for me. The land ends, yes but that’s also where the ocean begins…a totally new experience. In fact that’s how his poem continues, he says “yes, the land ends… but this is where the voyage begins”. I love that visual so much. Every ending, every change, every place where something familiar stops, doesn’t have to be the final stop. It can be the beginning of something new—if we don’t cling so tightly to the land we know. If we don’t plant our anchor there. We could put it down for a minute knowing that we will pick it up and move to a new destination at some point. It’s a good reminder to me to embrace or maybe just find peace with where I am now but also know that what comes next, even though it looks completely different, can be a wonderful new chapter all on it’s own.
So if the way we look at things matters this much, then the gentle question becomes: how do we find peace right where we are, even in the middle of contrast and change… while still holding that little glimmer of hope that life is bringing something exciting too?
One of the simplest, most powerful ways I’ve found is by paying attention to what our feelings are quietly telling us. They’re part of the contrast too—little GPS signals guiding us.
That bad feeling you woke up with this morning? It’s not there to punish you. It’s information. What is it pointing at that you might be ready to shift? You aren’t your feelings, but your life is created by what you do with your feelings.
That little flutter of excitement when you thought about a new class, a project, or that little tug that maybe you should call your mom or visit them, those little tugs are information from your inner guidance system. If your gut is saying this would feel right right now…. That’s your inner compass saying “do that.”
And sometimes the loudest message is when you feel… nothing at all. I got a voicemail recently from one of the church leaders who used to call when I was younger if I was in trouble for something I see now was ridiculous. Back then, that number alone would send fear and anxiety racing through me for days. This time? Nothing. No knot, no racing heart. That blank space told me: I’ve healed. I’ve grown. I’m not carrying that old version of me anymore and man that felt so good.
These little signals help us respond to and also navigate in a real way, life’s changes They invite us to find peace in the present moment and keep that hopeful spark alive for whatever voyage is waiting just ahead.
So here’s what I’m carrying with me this week, and what I hope stays with you: You’re not behind, and your life isn’t somehow harder or worse in some unfair way. We all have contrast. The changes and endings we can already see coming? They can be our Finisterre moments—where the familiar land ends, and a new voyage begins.
Love anyway. Find peace where you are right now, and keep that little glimmer of hope that something beautiful is unfolding too. Stay present with the joy that’s right in front of you—the tail wags, the late-night talks with your kid before they head off, the quiet cup of coffee with your parent. Listen to the whispers your feelings are sending. Every moment can be a new beginning if we let it.
Quick little challenge before you go: Take one quiet minute right now and notice—what feeling, or maybe what lack of feeling, have you been carrying lately? Where might you be clinging to the “land” a little too tightly? And what small glimmer of hope or excitement is trying to get your attention? Drop it in the comments or send me a DM. I really do read every single one, and I love hearing your stories—they remind me we’re all in this together.
And share this with someone who may be ending one journey and starting a new one. I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days!
