Episode 01: Life Lessons I Want to Share

"Don't die with the music in you", Wayne Dyer.  Wayne Dyer is an author, motivational speaker, listened to all of his books and there's that voice and that statement is kind of stuck with me and that statement is the reason I'm doing this podcast.  I wasn't sure, I know I wanted to do something and I didn't know if it was going to be lecturing or writing  And I did not know how it was going to manifest itself and now that we're home during this quarantine time with the coronavirus it's given me an opportunity to take a deep breath and say, this is the opportunity to share.  And for those of you who know me, I am very chatty and I love to talk so talking is probably the best way to share this information. 

The other moment a lightbulb went on was when I was listening to The Model Health Show by Shawn Stevenson and he was interviewing Eric Thomas.  He is a lot of fun.  I was enjoying the show and he said, you know I'm going to have to paraphrase but basically if you have information it really is no use and less you share it.  That got me thinking and then he said think about what gifts you have and how you can be of service.  And with 30 years of reading information on this one specific topic thought it would be a good idea for me to share the information.  So that's where some of the inspiration came from to start this podcast.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles and part of the tapestry of Los Angeles is traffic, part of my DNA.  One of the things that I think a benefit from that was audio books.  I would listen to in traffic, round trip 3 hours a day, approximately 2 books a week two to three and all in this area which I absolutely am fascinated with is mind body connection, thoughts are things, how it effects our body, how food effects our body.  Though I've just been a voracious say reader voracious listener on this topic for the last 30 years.  I did study nutrition.  I've always enjoyed the topic.  So I'm hoping that the information that I have learned and receive if it helps one person, this is all worth it. 

As we navigate through this journey we call life, we all share so many of the same emotions, challenges, experiences, as they say life happens.  It's how we react and perceive what happens that determines our ultimate level of happiness and contentment.  The purpose of this podcast is really to share what I call my toolbox of life.  Coping strategies that I've put together that have taken a lifetime to not only learn but to put into action that have allowed me to feel an abundance of joy, peace, and fulfillment, contentment and really love in my life.  The challenging circumstances we face do make us stronger and as we all have challenges there's another hero of mine or "shero" that I've listened to frequently, Lisa Nichols.  And she said, "the best gifts in life are wrapped in sandpaper".  And if I hadn't gone through many of the really challenging experiences in my life I wouldn't be who I am today and as strong as I am today.  

There's a there's a commercial and I really can't even remember the product and it was a pharmaceutical product.  But it's a lady about my age and she said you know I've been graduated from college, married, raised a family, divorced, cancer survivor, and I'm stronger than ever!  I totally could relate to that. 

So it really if I hadn't faced all of these challenges I would not be as strong and pushed me to find ways to heal. 

You know there really are a lot of great voices out there so many wise people that have shared so much inspirational information and I've been somewhat like a sponge listening and trying to incorporate those messages to make a difference first in my life to deal with stress going through a divorce in some challenges way back when at work where I don't know if anyone else has had this set up for in the morning with a panic attack.  Dealing with challenges in raising two sons.  We all have those moments and coping mechanisms have just been so critical to find myself in the place I am today and getting through that.  My sister one thing she told me that was trying to get them moving out was gentleman that was in prison who was falsely incarcerated.  He was trying to escape prison and he ended up doing through doing it through the sewer pipe he got down to this huge sewer pipe, pitch dark and you can imagine what he's walking in.  And there was this little teeny star at the very end and that little teeny star as he walked got bigger and bigger and it became that light at the end of the tunnel.  So that became my mantra for getting through that divorce.  But within that time the gift that was given to me is learning how to be peaceful and calm during tumultuous situations and a strength that I've never had before. 

You know for those of you who know Robin Roberts who is in Good Morning America, she had two major health challenges in her life and her mantra is, "make your mess your message".  You know in the second half of life we all have things we've gone through.  We learn from that and share with others and share the experiences to help others is really profound. And the reason I'm doing this is because of my mess in the past, what I've learned an it's now my message.  It's my strength and again Lisa Nichols, I keep quoting her but she just has a way of saying things that just resonates with me.  But, you know, "my life has a timeline and my legacy doesn't".  So in thinking in those terms, I'm hoping that I will live life of significance by, by sharing. 

You know, I also think in the second half of life, you know when I turned 50 it went from a life of the "supposed to do's" to a life of "the want to do's".  In the first 50 years you start out, you're born you don't know anybody, no wisdom, grow up, married, kids, college, the car, the house, work, you know all of what I called the "supposed to do's".  What a magical moment, I think I'm the only one, I don't know maybe there's somebody else out there, but I was so excited to hit 50! The yard line of my life, celebrated for three days, danced, friends and actually as nerdy as I am PowerPoint presentation to let everybody know that in my life how much they meant to me, kind of crazy.  My sisters took me dancing, which is a passion of mine, but being white girl, nobody ever asks me to dance so my sister paid these guys that were dancers to ask me to dance which is great.   They got their money’s worth with Spider-Man who is awesome.  So anyway, it was a huge celebration being 50 and it was almost a rite of passage where going from what I call the "supposed to do's to the  wanna do's".  And this second half of life has been so exciting because it's all of a sudden I'm starting at the 50 large yard line now with a lot more wisdom, surrounded by with such loving friends, loving family and in such a great place and now I'm able to do the "wanna do's" and also gives back.

So I think in looking at society today and we celebrate youth but there's such a richness in having this freedom with all of the wisdom being in a better place financially to enjoy life at a very different level.  And you know we're going to go there regarding aging as well but I really look at this journey of life as we grow and I correlated to a beautiful tree where as a tree ages their rings on that trunk.  And the more rings the thicker the trunk of the tree is an the thicker that shrunk of that tree the more branches it can support and the stronger the tree is.   And I really feel that I'm, we all, as we age become stronger and need to celebrate that and at some point I'm going to think about, at this point, what can I do to live a life that matters that gives meaning.  Such a great opportunity that we sometimes don't even stop and think about.  When we think about retiring, we have this visual norm that as we get older we're  supposed to be quieter and sit and not be as active or I don't know what our social norms are but to me there a little bit crazy because I feel like I'm just getting started.  And I do feel that these social norms about aging really don't help us.  That I think we should have a different concept towards aging.  But the wisdom going back to what I was talking about the wisdom that we have is something that we should be using and think about ways in which we can give back to society as well. In whatever form that may be whether it's with your children your grandchildren your community there's a lot of opportunities to really live a life of significance.

At this time of our lives we also have depth of clarity.  You're able to become in the person you're meant to be.  I think that whole thing about "be your true self".  You know sometimes it's difficult but with the depth of clarity of where you want to go and what you want to do and who you are makes all the difference.  I was listening to Jay-Z actually in an interview with Oprah and he talked about when he started out and he was making an album and it was a pop album and he failed miserably because it wasn't his genre but he was trying to fit in and it was just no flow.  But then once he was himself and his albums, obviously history speaks for itself. He is extremely successful.  So we all need to really at this point in our lives have that depth of clarity to know who we are and use that knowledge for good.

Now just passing my 60th birthday which was a another huge event.  The theme of that was, "If not now, when? That's why, the title of my podcast and really my mantra.  Now if I don't do this now, when in many areas.  In future podcast I'm going to be exploring topics in the area of nutrition which is just a world out there that food quality reading food labels, lot of confusion help to make it a little bit easier and all the mixed messaging.  Feeding your mind good thoughts, meditation, going to talk a lot about the value of good sleep, movement, exercise, and social connection as well in the value of all of that Looking forward to giving you content that's going to be useful and I do hope that you find the information that I share valuable because that is my goal.

I'm so grateful that you join me today and stay tuned for some great episodes coming up.  Sending you love, sending you peace, joy and will be talking to you soon.  Bye for now.

Shawn Stevenson - https://themodelhealthshow.com/podcasts/

Lisa Nichols -  https://motivatingthemasses.com/