Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 499 of the wildly successful lifestyle podcast. Welcome if you’re new, welcome back if you aren’t. This podcast is all about mindset and how to think for yourself and take care of yourself mentally especially. I really think personal responsibility is becoming cool again. It certainly is the part of the journey to true happiness.
I have to admit the last few weeks I have been kind of consumed with X and politics because of the election. For some weird reason that I cannot explain I enjoy it. Maybe it’s the drama of it but I don’t like drama in other areas, I remember years ago asking Eric my husband when all the drama surrounding politics would end, it seemed like it was extra crazy and he said it won’t. It won’t end, there’s always going to be some new thing to be analyzing or strategizing or worrying about. That’s how politics works. I realized he was right and that I had to manage my own mind around it because everyone stoking the fires makes money off stoking the fires.
The most volatile posts gets the most responses and the most responses gets the most money. On X anyway that’s how it works. When I realized it will never end, I knew that I either had to just stick to interior design and self improvement which I also am fascinated with or I had to really manage my mind when it comes to politics. This podcast has helped me a lot because there is a certain level of calm that I have to find in order to create two episodes a week. If I never managed my mind around it I would be a boat on the ocean that has lost its ability to steer. That boat is at the mercy of the ocean. And look it doesn’t make the ocean bad. It’s just doing what oceans do. They get volatile in storms, they can be wild and unpredictable. No boat wants to be at the mercy of the ocean, eventually if it doesn’t have the ability to steer itself it could and probably would lose its way maybe forever.
Here’s the thing that’s really crazy..the ocean doesn’t care about that boat, it’s not maliciously trying to sink it, it’s just doing what oceans do. So it has to fall to the boat to take care of itself, to manage itself, to be prepared on its own to deal with whatever the ocean is gonna do. You would never take a boat out without making sure it’s in good shape, that that rudder that steers the boat has been maintained and thoroughly cared for. The world we live in is just an ocean. Its gonna do what its gonna do. We are the boats. I am a boat on the ocean and so are you.
My mind is the rudder that steers me and so is yours. If we aren’t managing our mind, how do we know what condition it’s in? I can tell you how you know. How many times a day are you so anxious you think you’ll lose your mind? How many times a day do you lose your temper? How many times a day do you feel distraught or depressed or judgemental and resentful? These are all signs that your mind needs work, it needs maintenance. And we haven’t been taught as a society to work on our mindset daily. We know we should take care of our physical heath, which we have really gotten away from that too but we aren’t teaching our kids about the importance of a good heathy thoughtful mindset. That is equally as important as a healthy body. Can you imagine a boat that’s been meticulously maintained on the surface but when you look deeper, the rudder is rotted and the mechanisms are a wreck? It’s will be completely at the whim of the ocean. Same goes for us. We have to be managing our mind daily, just like we take care of our body.
My emotions cannot be at the whim of whatever I’m reading or listening to. My emotions cannot be at the whim of the person I live with or the person I work with. I have to be in charge of my emotions. Otherwise, whatever they wanted me to feel would be what I felt. I don’t want to live that way and I will not. But as I was thinking about this I realized it’s not just politics. It’s everything. If we don’t manage our minds on a daily basis, we become a ship that’s lost its rudder.
If you’re losing your mind because someone voted differently than you, you’ve lost your rudder.
If you’re losing your mind because that coworker won’t stop talking you’ve lost your rudder.
If you’re losing your mind because the government is doing anything, you’ve lost your rudder.
The world is an ocean and you are a boat. There’s no malicious intent to sink you, but sink you it will if you aren’t managing your mindset on a daily basis.
My challenge to you this week is to pick up a practice that intentionally manages your mind. Practice that daily for this whole week. A 10 minute mediation using the calm app. A 10 minute walk in nature without your phone. Even just a 5 minute gratitude journal. Quieting your mind for just 10 minutes a day will show your mind you’re in control. Once you do it for a while it will also reveal to you throughout the day the thoughts that are making you miserable. We all have them, just most of us aren’t aware of them so we rage at everything outside of us, we rage at the world as the problem when the world is just being the world. You don’t have to be at its whim. That’s the work. Share this with three people who care about mindset. I love you guys. I’ll talk to you in a few days.
