Life is messy, unpredictable, and full of surprises—so how do we protect our energy and stay grounded when it all feels like too much? In this episode of Spirit Speakeasy, I’m pulling back the curtain on my personal approach to “energy protection”—and it’s probably not what you think. 

Spoiler alert: it’s not about shielding yourself from the world but shoring up your own energy so life’s inevitable storms don’t knock you off course.

I’ll share what’s been working for me lately, from small but mighty self-care routines to practical tips for showing up as your best self—even when life gets “extra.” Whether you’re juggling a demanding career, family responsibilities, or just the ups and downs of being human, this episode is full of insights you can personalize, adapt and easily integrate into your own life.

You’ll learn:

• Why energy protection is more about you than external forces
• Simple ways to check in with yourself and process emotions
• Hacks for supporting “future you” in everyday life
• How to build a flexible “foundation” that evolves with you
• The surprising role of fun, play, and creativity in keeping your energy balanced

Plus, I’ll reveal the one mindset shift that changed how I approach self-care completely—and why “busy” is never an excuse to ignore your needs.

This episode is packed with practical tips, heartfelt advice, and a little nudge to prioritize yourself without adding more to your plate. Tune in to spark more joy and create a life that feels truly aligned with your energy.

🎙️ Have a foundational practice, hack, or tip that keeps you grounded? I’d love to hear it! Email me at [email protected] for a chance to be featured in a future episode.

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Episode Transcript:

hey, beautiful soul, welcome to spirit speakeasy. I'm Joy Giovanni, joyful medium. I'm a working psychic medium, energy healer and spiritual gifts mentor. This podcast is like a seat at the table in a secret club, but with mediums, mystics and the spiritual luminaries of our time. So come behind the velvet ropes with me and see inside my world as I chat insider style with profoundly gifted souls, we go deep, share juicy stories, laugh a lot, and it wouldn't be a speakeasy without great insider secrets and tips. You might even learn that you have some gifts of your own. So step inside the spirit speakeasy. Hey, beautiful soul, welcome back, or welcome in for another episode of spirit speakeasy this week, we are talking about sparking joy, what's working now, and my personal version of energy protection. This episode is actually going to release on my birthday. And I don't know about you, maybe it's just because my birthday is in January, but around the time of my birthday, I really start reevaluating, looking at kind of what's working now for me and my personal journey in my spiritual work. So I want to share a few of those things with you, because so often I know you guys are wanting to know how I'm working this energy, what tools I'm using in my day to day life. It's wonderful to talk about all of these expansive topics and talk to all these wonderful luminaries that we do on the show, but what can we implement in our own lives, or even, what can we tweak? It doesn't have to be whole new things that we're implementing. I know we're all so busy already. So in honor of my personal New Year, I just want to share a little bit with you. First, I want to talk about this idea of energy protection. I want to have a working definition for this episode. In particular, the idea of protection isn't about something outside of ourselves. Like to keep you safe from something outside of yourself. Life is hectic, and things happen unexpectedly all the time, plus everyone else also has free will, and we can only, quote, unquote, control or work on ourselves. So this type of energy protection that we're going to talk about in this episode is really about shoring up your own energy so that when the storms of life like inevitably rise or rush in, it doesn't turn your own world upside down. Because the truth is, life is always going to be hectic. Things are always going to pop off or be thrown at us, and how can we protect or bolster our own energy so that we're not as susceptible to kind of being knocked off course, or when these things do happen that take us by surprise, we're really rooted in who we are and in our own practice. So in this episode, I will share a few of things that are working for me right now. I don't know if these will work for you, but this is what's working for me right now. Maybe some of these will resonate with you, or give you something to check in with yourself about. Maybe you're already doing a wonderful job of all of all of these, and you have some suggestions for me, which I am totally available for that too. Feel free to message me. And I started writing this episode actually in December, and then I got a really bad cold and flu, so I'm actually off track with some of these in my own life right now, and I am really feeling it. It's how I know that these tools and tips that I'm going to share today are so important for me right now, just because I'm really feeling that I'm a little bit off track with them. And the other thing is, you'll notice I keep saying right now, it's because this list evolves as I evolve and my needs change. And for you, the same as you grow and change in the stages of your life, are different different tools might work for you. So I had that bad cold. I got off track, plus we had the election in the United States, and the political government drama is already in full effect in both the US and Canada now, and as well as many other countries in the world, there is a lot popping off politically and in governments all over the world, and as part of this recent energy, a few of the people close to me have also had some really hard things that they've needed just some extra support with. And it's important to recognize that these types of like extras, can always pop up or pop off at any time. So we also get to work on patience and flexibility and grace as a part of our regular way of being grace with ourselves as well as others. We have to stay present in this reality and informed. But it's also okay to take like media breaks and ask our. Selves and acknowledge the moments that we feel like life is kind of extra hard, and it's not about comparing ourselves to others or the suffering of others that's almost never helpful I feel like, but just giving yourself permission to work with yourself as needed and like I said, I know this piece is not necessarily like a revelation, but be taking social media breaks. Stay informed is, I think, how I want to say it, but with reliable sources. And the truth is, as we go through this list of like tips and tools and things that are working for me personally, that I hope will help you, I know most of you have full time, demanding careers and or family members that you support, whether financially or emotionally, medically. Some of you, maybe you also have kids that need a generous slice of your time and attention, plus just the regular ups and downs of the emotional, blind sides of our human lives, right? And I'm at a place in my life where my kids are grown. I don't currently have a romantic partner at the moment. I do have more than a full time small business, and even though my kids are not home anymore, for those of you that also have grown kids, I'm still a mom. So that is always still a part of what's happening in my world. And I just say all this to remind you that we all go through ages and stages and versions of our life that look vastly different. So some of these things that I'm gonna share now, they weren't always implemented in my life and integrated in this way, especially, you know, when I was single momming and had kids in school and was working two or three jobs. And so give yourself Grace there, and just adjust these suggestions to fit your own current needs and boundaries. Pick a couple maybe that really resonate with you, and try them out, then come back for more. If that's working, don't feel pressured to add more to your plate, and many of these can just easily integrate with your regularly scheduled day to day living like these aren't necessarily all a whole side project for you to implement. Some of them are just little things to kind of add into the way you're already moving through the world. Okay, so this first topic under this, what's working now that I want to talk about is, and actually this is a big part of the the energy protection that I was talking about, self care, just the stuff you need. And I wrote need and like, big capital letters for myself. For me, it's walking and stretching and meditating. Oh, my
self care, like the typical stuff that
people talk about all the time on like YouTube and social media, and a lot of those things just aren't enjoyable to me personally, and often feel like extra tasks, or they just make me really uncomfortable. I'm pretty sensitive in my energy and in my body, things that a lot of people enjoy, like going for a luxurious pedicure, that does not feel fun to me. It does not feel like self care to me, it just feels like something else on my to do list. So really, when you think of the self care you need, it's not about these extra fluffy things that you have to add into your schedule. It's like, what are the very base, bottom layer, foundational things that you absolutely need to be doing to take care of yourself. I will say checking in on your emotions is wonderful. That's something I'm always doing, especially if you notice like subtle emotions. For me, it's often resistance or annoyance or frustration. Sometimes it can be as fiery or powerful as like anger. But maybe it's not, maybe it doesn't reach that level for you. Maybe it's subtler emotions, and sometimes they're just below the surface, hiding like a little crocodile in the water. So as emotions are coming up for me throughout my day to day, I'm trying to at least make a mental note of them. Sometimes I can process them and look a little deeper. Sometimes, you know, maybe journaling or self help, or if you do therapy, that could also be wonderful. But just noting the the emotions that you feel, digging deeper when you can, and noticing the nudges,
like I said, for me at this point, at this little phase in my life, these often show up as like resistance. Sometimes it's something I know I need to do. Sometimes it's even something I want to do. Like, when I ask myself, do you actually want to do this? The answer is yes, or I want the longer term result, but I'm resisting the action in the meantime. Right now, the thing I'm currently resisting is adding in some strength training. I noticed that I am not as strong and my my body just doesn't feel comfortable in the way I need it to, as far as strength and strength training. So. Yeah, it's adding in a little bit of light strength training, and I am in so much resistance about it. I know that I want the long term benefits get, to get that bone density right, but I'm resisting actually implementing it. So that's something I can look a little deeper out of just noticing, like, Oh, I'm kind of having some resistance to this. What's that about? Do I want those benefits. Yeah, actually, that's I can agree to that that's really good. Okay, so what's happening between this, this is a good thing that I want to do, and actually doing it. So that's kind of one of the things I'm working with right now. But just noticing those nudges and noticing the emotions, whether it's for you, resistance or maybe it's another shade of emotion, and one of the other pieces of this self care, for me is going within or just sitting in the quiet, or some version of meditation or contemplation is part of your relationship with yourself, with your intuition and receiving your own answers. I believe ultimately, we all do have our own answers. We just don't always like the options that are being presented with or that are available at the time. But we almost always have options, and even when we don't, we often do know the answer. It's just we don't like the answer. So going within at this point, I do most mornings, not all mornings, but most mornings, I do about just under an hour meditation. That is for me, but for you, that could even look like five minutes of quiet or 10 minutes of contemplation or sitting in the stillness with yourself. It's just making space for that intuition, right? The other thing is like, don't you check your email or your text or DMS every day, or pretty close to every day? Why? Why don't we have permission, or why don't we think to check in with ourselves for even just five minutes of going within, in our quiet, sitting in the stillness with ourself? So that is a big one for me. I notice when I don't do it, or when I am have gone like a good long period of time without doing it. It does, for me, affect everything. So that's that's what I'm working with. And start where you are. There was a time it took me a long time to really settle into meditating. There were many, many, many years where I would have told you I absolutely can't do it. So even if it's five minutes or 10 minutes, even if for you, it's not sitting in meditation, it's going for a walk or just being in silence with yourself in some other way. I hear a lot of people say that they check in in this way, in the shower. So checking in with yourself going within. I try to work these into my regular routines. This next one that I consider self care things that will help, like the way I say it is help future joy. So this can be self care in a way of it's almost like loving yourself in advance. For me, sometimes it can be as simple as like setting out clothes with socks and shoes the night before. Like filling the coffee water the night before is a big one for me, it could look like meal prep or even just making lunch for the next day. It could look like going to bed earlier, if needed. When I have an interview on my calendar, for example, I always list all the info, the links and have the page notes, like any notes I might need ready. It can be in any area of your life, just building in ways to love and care for future you in advance. If that makes sense, this one started many years ago for me, because morning time joy has not always been the most able to remember like she's not the most competent. I'm better these days, but for many years, I'm just not the I'm just not the most natural morning person. So I'll even often have a list of things I need to like take with me to the office, if I haven't put them all in my little backpack already. I sometimes even leave a sticky note on my front door if there's something I really need to remember, so I'll see it when I'm leaving, but just sprinkling throughout your regular day to day. How can you love or help or care for future you in advance, it's even little things that we do, like flossing, right? Flossing, yeah, maybe it helps me today, but it's really more for long term Joy so that she can have good dental health, or whatever it is. You might even be doing some of these already, but the more that I do, the better it is. So I really like this one. This one's worked for me for a long time, but I'm not perfect at it at all, and sometimes I'm doing more than other. Times there's an ebb and flow to everything. I think most of you have been here know by now that I believe in this ebb and flow. Yeah. So sometimes I'm not doing as great of a job at it, but when I'm in the flow of it and when I'm really setting up things for sometimes it's just tomorrow joy. I think, like, what can I set up today that would really help me out for tomorrow? And sometimes it's more long term in the future, okay? If you personally also need other types of self care, incorporate them, we're all different, right? Maybe there are things. Maybe you need a monthly. As part of your health care. It's wonderful for everyone, if it's within your means, or if you want to add in additional things, you can, but it's good to have an understanding of the very, very bottom line of your own self care for yourself, not just your physical body, but your whole self, like actually you. So for me, really, it just is, I need to move my body in some way. That's the one I'm kind of like struggling to get back on track with. I need to stretch my body. I tend to be very flexible, but I get stiff real easy. And especially now, I sit so much with my work as a medium. I'm not, you know, it's not as physical. And I need to go within for me that looks like meditation. I need to be checking in on my emotions, regularly, noticing the nudges or noticing the even very subtle emotions that are rising up. And I need to be doing things for future joy, because those are the things that just really, really help me to do self care. So kind of reimagining, maybe even what self care looks like for you, and then just really understanding, like, what is your very bottom line of what you absolutely need to, you know, function in the world in a way that feels good to you. The next one that I want to throw at you. Some of these might sound obvious, but some of these, I really, I really struggled with this one for a long time, permission to rest. I generally don't work on Sundays, just because it's always kind of worked out that way for lots of reasons. But sometimes, and again, this is where my kids are grown. I'm currently single, so I maybe have a little more flexibility here, but sometimes I stay in bed all day on a Sunday. Yeah, I might also be working just because that's kind of how I am. Sometimes there's little bits of things that need to be get get done, but I have permission to just rest on Sunday, not do anything. Not you know, I could do laundry if I want, but I don't have to. So even if it's not an every once a week occurrence, even just once in a while, like once a month, giving yourself permission to rest. Maybe it's in the evening for you, that's where it shows up, where it's like, oh, do I have to, do you know this one more set of things? Or can I have permission to unplug at 10pm whatever it is for you. But permission to rest has been a big one for me. It is working for me right now, but it was a hard one line item for me. I just, there just was something for me about I needed an excuse to rest like I was being lazy or not pushing to my full potential. So there is a balance of when trying and striving and working so hard can become unhealthy for us, right? So permission to rest. I won't go. I won't harp on that one for too long. It's pretty obvious. Another one for me is permission to play. And this actually for me again, another one that's a little hard one. This had to become a requirement, like I require of myself permission to play, and what that looks like for me is different all the time. Last year, I went to the zoo quite a bit. It's just up the street. For me, I do Disneyland. I have a pass, because I live not too far, just an hour and a half away. I schedule with friends to go to comedy shows. I love stand up comedy I don't know if you guys all know that about me, but I'm super stand up comedy nerd, and I have been since I was in like, the third or fourth grade.
I schedule in person, time with anyone who's on my a team. It's not just anyone. I don't have time for just everyone who wants to hang out, or every person that wants to get together. We're all busy in our own way, right? But those people that are on my a team kind of my close circle, I intentionally schedule in person, time with them, and this idea of play doesn't necessarily come naturally to all of us, depending like where we grew up and our culture and and who we are as an individual, but for me, it really is something that revitalizes me. The hard thing is, my natural urge is to feel like I don't need those things for and for many, many years, they felt too frivolous. I definitely had no time for all of this, like fun stuff. And now that I'm a different phase in a different place, I've had to really reassess and understand, like, what even feels fun to me? What do I enjoy if I could just have a day off and do whatever I wanted? What would I do? That is I feel like I need to, like, energetically, push myself out into the world, like, not a staying home activity, something else. And for you, maybe fun is like doing some crafts. Actually have a craft project waiting on my kitchen table right now that I'm putting out intentionally to keep reminding myself you want to do this fun project. So permission and again, for me, requirement for fun, I need to make sure I get things scheduled on the calendar, or weeks and weeks can go by with like, very little fun. One or connection that's not connected to work. I just love my work. And I feel like when you have a small business, many of you know you have small businesses too, it is there's not a lot of separation between our work and ourself, especially if your business is kind of you. So I really need to get those things on the calendar, because in the moment, like I said, I will genuinely feel like I feel good. I don't need I don't need that. I'm fine. I can go another week without, you know, hanging out or seeing anyone or going to anything or whatever. And I am a little bit introverted in some ways by nature. I have kind of a good flexibility there. So I need to make this a requirement for myself. I feel better ever after having engaged in whatever fun means that week and it's different in different times, right? Even week to week. It can be different or look different, but if I wait too long, I just I just notice, and it makes me want to withdraw more and more and more. So I do really make an effort to get these things on the calendar, especially if you're someone that your natural urge is to feel like you know, I don't, I don't need to have fun, or I don't even know what that means, because for many I believe I get it. For many years, I didn't either. And it doesn't have to be a whole day of fun. It can be a couple hours. It could be going out and having a cocktail or a boba tea with a friend. Doesn't have to be an elaborate thing. If there are occasionally elaborate things you want to schedule. Hey, great, but it's just about getting to understand what feels fun to you. It really does refill me in a way that I have a hard time putting words to because, like, I said, even, even sometimes when I am on the drive to the fun thing, I am like, I don't want to go to this. Like, why did I schedule this? Like, I just want to stay home. I don't want to put on pants or shoes or whatever it might be. But when I go, of course, because I'm choosing people intentionally that are on my a team. I always have fun. There's always something enjoyable that comes out of it, or I just feel better when I get home, even if the thing itself isn't all that much fun, maybe I'm helping them with an errand or a thing they need to do, and it's not necessarily something you would like label as fun. It's just a time together. I really do feel filled up, so that is a necessity for me right now, which, again, another one that was hard one. The next one that I want to highlight is the way I labeled it in my notes. Is feed your ears and your spirit. This can look like frivolous podcasts. Yeah, sometimes we learn stuff on podcasts, but there are also some that we can learn things sometimes, but the hosts are fun this podcast. Love it. That would be one of your feed your ears things and definitely share if you love us this podcast music at least a few times a week. I know this might sound ridiculous, because so many of us are so moved by music in our day to day life. I think it's because I either worked in places that had lots of music, or other times, like when I did massage therapy for so many years, I had kind of that meditation type music on all the time, so I wanted to just hear a podcast or hear people talking. So I sometimes forget about music, which I know sounds ridiculous. So when I'm in a good mood, or even just over time, I'll hear a song out and about I'm constantly adding to my playlists, and then just sometimes, I'll even have, you've heard me say it here before, a little dance party in the kitchen, just with myself. So really, we need other people's creativity. We need to consume art that others have created to fill us up in a different way. You'll be able to draw on this energy too. So it's not just like a waste of time or frivolous. We can draw on the energy of the creativity of others. Sometimes it can move our own inspiration, our own creativity and sometimes our own emotions. Sometimes it'll click in a little aha moment for us a little bit deeper, or it can be a breadcrumb on our path to something else, but it can just fill us up with joy and creativity and inspiration, and we need, sometimes, someone else's art form to like, match our energy to especially if you're in a job that's helping others, or that is a little bit tedious in some way. We need to be filled up recently. So sometimes I will, like I said, do a little kitchen dance party. I do have some playlists. I have a short list of podcasts that I listen to all the time. But once in a while, like on New Year's Day, I did this, I went down a YouTube rabbit hole. And of course, we know there's lots of drama, and I was going to say trash, but there's lots of stuff to find online, especially like YouTube and social media. So if we can find negative stuff or stuff that brings us down, we can also find positive, wonderful. Stuff, I went down this whole rabbit hole, and I ended up on YouTube, finding this channel. I don't know if it's called piano or piano te i will link this YouTube channel in the show notes just for fun these in case you want to check it out. There is this incredible artist. His name is John Batiste. He's not a new artist. He has a gajillion Grammys and is like an incredibly known and celebrated artist, but on this particular channel, they he's, he's like a prodigy, like a musical genius. He can play tons of instruments, and he can hear his perfect pitch, and he can hear songs for like, a few seconds and and start, like, creating his own part to it, or version of it. And I went down this whole rabbit hole of just watching him. They'd play a song for him that he'd never heard, and he would just start, this was piano, but he would start like creating the piano segment of the song, because they'd play it for him with that piano track removed. And just to watch his creative genius, watch him feel in his body this inspiration. I say this so lovingly. I don't mean it in a disrespectful way, but this wonderful man reminds me of if a Sesame Street Muppet came to life like he is just so full of creativity and inspiration and just exudes joy in his work as a musician. So there are wonderful rabbit holes like that that we can go down of just getting incredibly inspired through art that other people create. And like I said, I will link that in the show notes, because it was pretty fun and incredible. You might not find it as inspirational as I did. It just struck me at the right moment, right? So feed your ears and your spirit. The other thing I want to touch into is this idea of having a firm foundation. This is this, like doing our own work, thing that we always talk about. It's a big piece of the puzzle. Truly, as we all know, life throws itself at us from various directions all the time, and this is a constant.
And what's really I'm sure you've noticed in your own life, what's really crazy is that sometimes we can have a wonderful thing happening or unfolding in our lives and also a really chaotic or difficult or painful thing happening in another area of our life. Sometimes these things are things that we're actually experiencing happening to us, or it could be we have a really hard challenge in our life, and someone we care about is celebrating a wonderful joy or achievement in their life, or vice versa. And how do we hold both of those energies at the same time and be a human while life is throwing all of this craziness at us and chaos from different directions all the time. It's not something we can escape. It's part of our human experience. But we can work on this. We can process what comes up. We can't like, fix it and make everything perfectly even keel all the time as we might want, but we can process what comes up in our own way differently the more we learn and grow. So I challenge you to kind of start thinking about what is your own foundational practice that you continue to learn and grow and deepen, right? This can change with you, too. For many people, it includes in pieces and parts in their daily routine, things that they're implementing and really just making a part of their regular world. Part of it is checking in with ourselves in a neutral, kind of self aware way, meaning, like, not an emotionally charged way, but seeing if we can get to this is why I like to do this work. Walking. I do a lot of my emotional processing walking. Something about moving my body helps me take the charge, the energetic charge, off of the emotions, and then I can process them differently. So like, what, what is your foundational practice? Or practices meditation is a big one for me, listening within, even if you call it something different from meditation, like you could call prayer or contemplation, or like, what is your relationship with your own soul and spirit, or something greater than yourself, infinite energy, Source Energy, whatever you like to call it, what's your relationship with that energy? And what's your relationship with yourself? It's important to note that we often think of the word foundation as something that's set, like, you know, a foundation of a house. We hope it's pretty set and solid, our foundational tools can change and expand and shift. I like to think of it more as a foundational toolbox, like maybe like a builder or a contractor would have always adding up, keeping the tools we do have, incorporating what works best at that time or for that. Situation or job or moment. If you've ever I've known a lot of contractors and builders over my life. They always have so many tools, and sometimes they have the most specific tool for just one very particular use. That's how our energetic tools can be. But what's the foundation that you're using? What I've shared today really is my foundation. These are the things that I'm implementing. It's not just about this relationship with our own soul, not just about the universe, not just about all the unseen energy plus the life we have to live. It's all of these things combined. So I'm so curious to know like, what is your foundation? Or what are the foundational tools that you use? Are there things that you've decided you absolutely need? And for me, there are some tools that are just in my toolbox I don't pull out all the time. There are probably tools that I forgotten. Thank goodness I've made notes and have books and reminders and all kinds of things. Yeah, so just really keeping up and incorporating what works best in any given moment, and I am reevaluating this, like what works now for me all the time, I actually often even keep a Notes tab. Like in the Notes tab, I keep a section in my phone about what's working now, just to remind myself, because if I'm having a bad day, I can't always remember. And the other thing is, I'm going to give you a couple quick pro tips just to help you integrate some of these things or even evaluate them in your own day to day life, so you can see what's working now for you, or what might work a little better, or what you might want to tailor or shift. For me, one of the key things to remember is, if it doesn't get on the calendar, it's not happening. So I even schedule in time, not on my like, formal calendar, but in my mental calendar. In the morning, I set a wake up time I've already done the math of like, okay, the meditation takes this much time. I take this much time to get ready. I need to stretch that takes this much time. So building it into your schedule or getting it on the calendar, like for me, with that one that I have about, like requiring myself to have some fun and incorporate fun that has to get on the calendar, I'm it's not that I'm not a spontaneous person. I can be spontaneous, but the truth is, I will fill in my time with other things, and I don't always have a lot of spaciousness. So I love getting things. I have a few friends that every month we schedule for the next month on the calendar, so it's just there. So get it on the calendar in some way, shape or form. Another tip is busy. The word busy, quote, unquote, is not a reason not to get basic self care or personal needs met, like how we talked about whatever is your absolute must have version of self care that you do, not just for your physical body, but for your like actual self. It's always busy. So busy is not a reason to not get these basic needs to feed ourselves. It's always busy. And I bet you can attest to that in your own life, that's always busy. Something else that really helps me as a little pro tip here is smaller steps to chip away. If I remember, I told you a lot of times my anxiety shows up as resistance. So if I'm anxious or feeling resistant. This is one of my areas that I that I work on, habits, self care, any of it, I ask myself, can this be broken down into smaller, more manageable steps, even if it's like recording the podcast, for example, because this one applies to any area of your life. I kind of know the rhythm and the the task list of the podcast at this point, I've been doing it for how a couple years now, and sometimes I am in resistance. And what I noticed was, if I break things down into smaller steps, I can it's not that that resistance completely dissolves, but I can move through it a little more effectively. So I've noticed that if we have a task on our to do list, whatever it is, big or small, and we're resisting it, often it can be broken down into smaller chunks, and then that helps us move through it, even if the original task is well within my capability, it's more about moving through the resistance than the task itself. And the entire time, I try to be aware for more subtle emotions or clues that something deeper is going on, because that can be the case, not always. So what I had started doing, like with the podcast, for example, was I pre write all the episodes. Initially I was just having notes for myself about what I wanted to say, but now I have expanded into additional notes or more, writing out what I want to say, because I get sidetracked. I get distracted. I get something comes up, and I go off on a tangent, and then I lose where I was, or I lose what I wanted to say. So I. I am more likely to feel comfortable sitting down to record the podcast if I have already spent time setting up the episode and understanding what the topic is and making the notes or writing it out, or whatever I want to do for myself. So the place that I have the resistance was sitting down to record and the way I worked it was like it doesn't for me personally, I know this is not true for everyone. It doesn't make sense for me to feel resistant to sit down and record something. I'm fine recording. I'm fine being in front of a camera. You guys know I can talk like let's be honest, but I just sometimes resist sitting down to record. So I've noticed if I break it into smaller steps, like I was saying that I'm more likely when it is time to record I can just set it up differently. I don't know if that's the best example, because I know that doesn't necessarily apply to everyone, but hopefully you can think of something in your own life that if you break it down into smaller steps, it really does make a big difference.
Yeah, and it can even be about small things. Just I was gonna go off on another tangent, but I won't. I'll just leave it there and let you think about what tasks in your life do you have resistance to that? Maybe you can break it down into smaller steps, but still, as you're working this tool, be aware or available to just check the emotions as you go. Because sometimes the resistance is about the we feel subconsciously overwhelmed because the task feels too big, even if it's like I said, Well, within our capability. But sometimes that emotional resistance is indicating something else it can be indicating that you don't want to be doing that thing at all. And truly, there are some things in life that we just have to do, whether we like it or not, right as a part of our work or whatever, but just being aware for those subtle emotions and clues that like something deeper is going on here. Okay, another pro tip that I've talked about before is this idea of recognizing the ebb and flow of life. I give myself a lot of permission on this one, because I am a person who can get in this it's truly, it's a trauma response, and it's that's also some of the reason I work on it. But I can get in this mode where I can drive so hard and be so focused and so on top of my To Do lists and and really working myself too hard, and I really have worked to try to understand that there's an ebb and a flow. It's why I sometimes give myself permission to just, I call it no pants Sunday, just just like lounge my best friend calls it couch rotting so whatever, just have a day of just complete rest, because there is this ebb and flow of life. And the truth is, in most of our personal worlds, we will have times where we will have to really be driven or push hard or focused or just super busy in one area. And then there might come a time where it backs off a little bit. I'm thinking about a dear friend of mine who has a kiddo that does high school band and during band season, as you might imagine, crazy busy, not not necessarily always time for all of these other components, but then there's, there's an ebb right where it recedes and it's a little less busy. So just recognizing the ebb and flow of your life as part of this and giving yourself some grace. As silly as this might sound, this is one that I've had a really hard time with. I usually can find lots of grace for other people. I understand that at any given moment I don't know what someone else is going through. That's I think we all can accept that, but I often have a hard time giving myself grace. There was a week, not too long ago, within the last couple months that I actually missed a podcast day, and it was one of my friends that was like, can you just give yourself permission to skip this one? And it was when I was sick, actually, when I had that bad cold I had previously mentioned, and I was fighting really hard against it. It might have even been this episode that I was supposed to do then, but I was really being so hard on myself, because I'm so intentionally trying to be committed to getting an episode out every week and posting about it, and doing all the things right, because we know the only way to move forward in this kind of work is consistency, but just finding that grace for ourselves as part of it. It's not making excuses for ourselves or not getting the things done we need to do, but just finding ways we can give ourselves grace as a part of this work. So I just wanted to throw that in there as well. And you guys, I hope know how much I love you as the Spirit Squad. You're all such amazing individuals in your own way, and I
love
if you would share your best foundational practices. I mean, maybe you're a foundation, and the practices you use isn't completely formed. I think all of us, it's like I said, we're all. Adjusting it, always tweaking it, always understanding what we need and what's working for us right now. But if you have some tools or a small tip or hack that helps you get through your days, I would love to compile these for a future episode, because I think that's part of community, right? We all have bits to share. We all have a hack for something or a trick for something, or a oh, this is the best foundational practice that I've learned that really helps me. So if you have even a small tip or hack that helps you, I would love it. If you would share it for your for a future episode, you can call in to the podcast at 305-928-5683
which is also 305928
love, l, o, v, e, and share it on a voicemail so I can use your voice in the podcast. Or if you don't feel comfortable using your own voice, I could use an AI voice for you. Or you can write it in in an email to admin at joyful medium.com admin, A, D, M, I N at joyful medium.com and send me your best hack or tip or spiritual practice that is working for you or tool or what's working right now, even if you feel like it's small, I would love to hear it, because it is in the small details of our day to day where we actually live, right? Yes, we live in the bigger picture of our lives, but it's these small day to day, things like, hey, what can I do for tomorrow joy that will really help her out or give her a break or make her feel cared for? What tips do you have call in and leave me a voicemail. 305928,
love, 305-928-5683
or email admin at joyful medium.com share your tips for a future episode, I really want to compile these, and I would love it if you would join me at the workshop that is coming up just then this weekend, from when this is being released on January 25 live online with me. Doors close on the 24th so if you want to get into this web, web based online, live workshop, live with me on Zoom. Just sign up. Even if you can't make the live session, you can get the replay. I will link in the show notes, the link to sign up and to get all the information. It is a full day session, 10am to 4pm with breaks. It's three sessions. This learning page, info page will tell you everything you'll get. It'll break down the sessions, what we're going to be doing, what to expect, what your day will look like, all of it. So just check that out. You can either find it in the events section of my website, joyful medium.com, under the Events tab, or you can check the link in the show notes, and it'll take you directly to that page. So many of you had said you really wanted to, like, kick start your 2025 learn how to use your intuition. Intuition is one of the things I'm getting asked about all the time. The emails that I'm receiving say, I want to work with my intuition. How do I be more intuitive? How do I like I feel disconnected from my soul self, for my higher self, I feel blocked. This workshop is going to address all of that. So check out the link. I hope you will join me on january 25 either live or sign up and get the replay. I'm so excited to just cruise into 2025 it's gonna be a chaotic year, probably. I also am following the nine themes of the nine year, and she tells 2025 for six months to adjust my schedule and expectations, and let's do it together, right? Let's go through this time together in community, supporting one another. I am always grateful to have you here with me. It means more than you know. I would love it if you would follow the podcast wherever you're listening. Give it a little like subscribe, and while you're there, if you could share it with a friend, that always really helps. What are you excited about for 2025 what's working for you right now? What are your tips and tricks? I'm gonna keep fine tuning mine, and I hope you will keep fine tuning yours. And thanks for being here with me today, as always. Big hugs. Lots of love. Bye for now from inside spirit speakeasy,