The Self-Awareness and Self-Compassion Podcast

This week’s episode explores how I inadvertently self-sabotaged myself while pursuing my sewing goals and how I got back on track.
Sometimes despite our best intentions, we overwhelm ourselves and not only tank our progress on the new thing but sap our energy everywhere else, too!

Listen to today's podcast if you need inspiration on uncomplicating your projects, clearing your space, and tapping back into your passion again.

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It’s good to take down some notes on where you are now before you start any kind of self-improvement journey. This year I want to maximize my health so I decided it would be a good idea to get some kind of a record in place to set a baseline of my current health and fitness.

This way I can check back in over the years and find out if I’ve managed to maintain my bone density, where my fat distribution moves over the years, and lets me know where I am doing well and where I have room for adjustment.

I chose to get a DEXA scan to record this information, and it was an interesting experience. It didn’t take very long, only about ten minutes. Some of that was just strapping my legs together and making sure my arms were next to my body while I laid on the scanning bed.

You can schedule a DEXA scan without a doctor’s recommendation now, but there aren’t a lot of places that provide this service outside of an insurance system. I had to drive an hour away, but I consider the knowledge worth the effort to acquire.

Remember that making progress checks with yourself is important because our mind tends not to notice our gains and only focuses on the next goal post – and we often move our goal posts over time as our gains become a new normal.

By checking in and noticing all the positive changes, you can keep your negative self-talk in check and celebrate how far you’ve come.

Support the show

Your donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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Whenever anyone tells us something to do, we have pushback against that idea to see if they really mean it, and also to reinforce what we’re doing instead of changing. It happens even when we ask ourselves to do something different.

Instead of telling ourselves to do something, we should let ourselves opt in. We change much easier when we are able to believe we are choosing to do an action rather than forced to do an action or reluctantly complying with a protocol.

Is there something that I have been putting off, that I could help myself to do by imagining how nice it will be to have the result of it being done? Getting that feeling of having the result makes you naturally more motivated and ready to take action.

Once you agree that your desired action is a great idea, it makes it harder to not do it.

Getting over the hump of not wanting to spend your day doing something you don’t think you’ll enjoy can be helped by noticing if there’s something you’re currently doing that isn’t bringing you a lot of joy or accomplishment, and asking if you could use that time to try the new thing. If you want to stop playing on your phone, for instance, and want to get your laundry done – you can use the impulse to play on your phone as the reminder to pick up the laundry basket and just put the laundry in already! This way it’s harder to argue with yourself about getting started, and you’ll likely still have time for your phone later anyway. 😊

You can also overcome some resistance by recognizing how much energy you spend on thinking about the action you haven’t taken yet, and really feel in your bones how much easier it would feel to have just done the action already and not still have to do it.
Action in a lot of ways can be an energy saver for you, but you just never thought of it that way!

Support the show

Your donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

• leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word
• subscribe so you don't miss an episode wherever you stream your podcasts

Thanks for listening!

When our goal is too broad or vague, it’s too difficult for our brains to get on board and make it happen. Our bodies don’t know what we want them to do. Making decisions that could get us closer to the goal becomes super difficult because we have no real sense of what succeeding at the goal looks like.

The first challenge is recognizing why you haven’t already changed.

The next challenge is figuring out how you can maintain whatever rewards you are currently getting from staying the same and converting it into a new action or way of being that gets you closer to your goal.

You can use your imagination to wonder about who you would be if you already had the thing you want to have, or already succeeded in completing the goal. Then, you notice the difference between how that future version of yourself does things and how you currently do them.

It’s so important to be specific about what you should be doing instead of what you already do. It isn’t even an option to change what you do until you know what the new action is.

You should also look out for the thoughts and motivations that you think you will feel when you change or are taking a different action. Most of the time, we don’t feel great about a new action while we are in the day-to-day grind. The rewarding feelings come way later, in hindsight and reflection. Or at least that is the case for me!

When making your roadmap, half of the battle is confronting our thoughts and feelings and knowing that it’s OK to have thoughts and feelings and choose consciously which way to go with our decisions.

Knowing what it’s like to make a different choice makes choosing that choice way easier. You know what you are going to object to and what it will sound like or feel like, and you will set up in advance a way to make it easier for you to make the choice you’d prefer.

Try to make your steps small and simple, easy to track, and not too demanding of your energy or willpower. If you accumulate many small nearly effortless steps, you will get to your destination SO MUCH FASTER and more permanently than you will otherwise.

Support the show

Your donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

• leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word
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Thanks for listening!

In life we tend to lean towards the side of action – but there is a necessity for rest and quiet and stillness. When we are faced with moments of rest, a break, or vacations, we find it difficult to dwell in the quiet.

This episode explores what to expect when we take a break and attempt to recuperate from burnout and hard work. It turns out, this is a difficult experience for most of us! And that’s OK. You will survive, and it is still worth doing, even if we fill up our time as quickly as possible so that we are still doing things even when we are supposed to be having a break.

There are ways we can shake things up and reset our routines quickly.
If you are feeling stressed out about the change in routine and afraid of what might not be happening or what is happening while you are away – is it possible to fill your time with experiences and activities that let you wonder?
Wonderment and curiosity, especially for discovering new experiences you enjoy – are an excellent path towards refilling your cup.

Support the show

Your donations mean the world to me and allow me to continue to create content each week. I ❤️you and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

• leave an awesome review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word
• subscribe so you don't miss an episode wherever you stream your podcasts

Thanks for listening!