Alan and Bre open the show by talking about being “busy” and that “busy” is bullshit. You make time for the things you want to prioritize in your life. Our goal is to not be busy. Bre shares her recent experience in her hunter ed class. This led us down the rabbit hole of guns, gun education and children being around guns. GUNS ARE NEVER TOYS! Bre leads us through our mindfulness breath, then we begin to talk about self care. We stop taking care of ourselves when we become busy because we don’t prioritize our self care. We must ask ourselves, “How are we performing?” when we are not taking care of ourselves. Taking care of yourself is simple, but not easy, it requires discipline. Self care is a non-negotiable. In order to be selfless you must be selfish.
Alan shares his “Back to the Beach” Challenge and this conversation goes on for a bit as Bre and Alan hammer home the point of being consistent. Consistency isn’t sexy, but having a beach body is, Alan makes the point that when you look good you feel good. Bre makes a great point that self care starts at the grocery store. You must make time for yourself to workout. Especially if you are a parent, Alan talks about his friends with two kids that still make time for workouts. All you need is 55 minutes to join in the Back to the Beach Challenge. 55 minutes in a 24 hour day, break down your day in three 8-hour increments. Then ask yourself how much time are you spending on social media and netflix. You have a favorite app, but you don't have a favorite exercise or workout? Bre argues that when you feel good you look good! What are the things that make you feel good? Do those! Eating a tub of ice cream might make you think you are going to feel good, but then you feel like shit. But really it gives you the sugar farts. We want instant gratification, but we need to realize that we need to feel good over extended periods of time. Your self care is going to create ripples which turn into waves in everything that you do. How you do anything is how you do everything. Bre shares her day of drinking with her friends and that she felt like shit the entire next day. It is important to reflect on how you feel when you take care of yourself and how you feel when you don’t.
Alan brings up “body positivity” to acknowledge that we must stop shaming people on both sides of the spectrum. Set a goal to be healthy and remember that body positivity shouldn’t mean complacency. Stop using crutches and excuses for lack of self care. The conversation shifts a bit to Alan’s thoughts on what a workout is for him and then they both talk about hour long yoga classes. Bre makes some great points that we have lost mindfulness and now we are doing these workouts or exercises to “Check the box”. Self care leads to a quality of life you can only get from taking care of yourself. Before the journal prompt they talk about the importance of accountability and we must stop taking it personal. Quit blaming outside sources, you are the only one that is responsible for yourself. Work on creating interdependence in your relationships so we can all get better together.
Journal prompt: Write about your thoughts from the episode. Use your journal for self care, commit to consistency in using your journal. Write about who you need to take care of yourself for. Just. Fucking. Start. Write about the sensations you have and remember to use this as a tool of reflection.
HUGE THANK YOU to the Allyson Band https://allysonband.com/ for the podcast’s music and Brianna Cote http://briannacote.com for photography and cover design.
Podcast and Book referenced: Being conscious about what we consume, how we consume and where we consume, please support your local bookstore, they can typically order most books for you if they don’t have it in the store.
Neither Wolf Nor Dog by Kent Nerburn
