The Problem with the Present Moment – We’re Talking about Meditation

Emily Thompson 0:00
That's really the thing with meditation, I think is the fact that it's giving you the ability to recognize that you control your own mind. And if you want to be quiet, you make it quiet. And if you want to, you know, hold those feelings, you hold them, if you want to let them go, you let them go, whatever it may be. And through that process, you're able to control everything in your life, whether that's your relationships, or your working situation, whether it's actually controlling those situations, or controlling how you're affected by those situations, that allows you to control your life, and a whole other way that I think just plays into like what we do as creative entrepreneurs and what we teach in terms of take control of your work and live life on your own terms. It can be hardcore, practiced through meditation.

Kathleen Shannon 0:56
Hello, and welcome to being boss,

Emily Thompson 0:59
a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. I'm Emily Thompson.

Kathleen Shannon 1:03
And I'm Kathleen Shannon. Hey bosses. Today we are talking about stepping up our game with meditation. As always, you can find all the tools books and links we referenced on the show notes at being boss club. Alright, you all it's that time of year for real, where everyone is freaking out about those annual income taxes. And I've got to say, I feel good doing that fresh books cloud accounting helped me stay organized with my income and expenses all year round. with fresh books, you can easily pull a report that will detail exactly how much money you made, and what expenses you can write off organized by category and everything and what your bottom line for the year came out to. It is not too late to start to get organized with your money in 2018 try fresh books cloud accounting for free by going to freshbooks comm slash being boss and enter being boss in the How did you hear about us section?

Unknown Speaker 2:04
Hi, Kathleen. Hey.

Emily Thompson 2:09
I feel like Long time no see, we're coming back after our holiday break. I guess to get back into recording. I feel a little nervous.

Kathleen Shannon 2:18
I would think that we should put this in here because when is this episode coming out? February. It's fine. Okay,

Emily Thompson 2:24
like I love the dog is starting to bark right now. Oh, my gosh, I got warm enough. And now they're letting it out again?

Kathleen Shannon 2:31
Well, it's a good thing that we're talking about meditation today. Speaking, isn't that

Emily Thompson 2:36
right, let's, let's talk about meditation with a dog barking in the background, see who has control over their mind or not?

Kathleen Shannon 2:46
Okay, I'm so excited to talk about meditation a little bit because I have been re inspired to pick up my practice based on a book recommendation that you gave me, Emily. And it's really like I'm just diving in full force. And I think that the catalyst of moving and being so new to my external environment has really prompted or catalyzed me to go within. And it's feeling good. And I've got some goals. I'm amped up about it. And I want to talk about it. Oh, I

Emily Thompson 3:15
definitely want to talk about some meditation goals, because I haven't even said any of those. But yeah, I picked up I would say like re picked up. But this is kind of really actually the first time I've actually had a meditation practice. Anyway, picked it up. Probably beginning of November, I guess. So I've been meditating pretty consistently, not quite daily, definitely probably every other day since the beginning of November. So that is three months at this point. And it's been exciting. It's definitely the longest time I've ever done it. It got me into some good books, which got you into it. And we're ready to talk about it.

Kathleen Shannon 3:57
Yeah, so let's talk about it. I feel like anytime I see any sort of podcast about meditation, I am not listening to it. I don't want to read about it. I don't want to listen to it. And here's why. Because I have a lot of resistance that comes up around the topic of meditation because it's something I know I should be doing. But I haven't been inspired to do it. And I think that part of it is understanding the how and the why of meditation. So hopefully we can dig into that for you, dear listeners, if you have the same aversion to listening, people talk about meditation that I do,

Emily Thompson 4:31
right for me, meditating is like flossing your teeth, like I know I need to do it and it's gonna make things better, but will it? And yes, the answer is yes.

Kathleen Shannon 4:42
Alright, so you have just picked up this meditation practice since November. But did you ever meditate at a younger age? Or you know, what was your first experience with meditation or When was the first time you tried it?

Emily Thompson 4:53
Sure, yes, I have meditated many times before many many and whether that was As in like a yoga practice or going to meditations, or even I, I say I've never really had a personal practice before, I've tried to have a personal practice a couple of times before. And it never was long enough for me to actually call it a personal practice for sure. So it is something that I've dabbled in, I'll say for a couple of years. And but I think my very earliest experience with it actually came back in my tanning salon days. So like, when I was a kid, basically, that was in college, and I was running my first business. I was like, on stress overload, like really hardcore. And I started developing an inability to go to sleep at night, with just running over all the things that were going on in my head to the point where I was having trouble going to sleep. And you know, me sleep, and I are besties. So it was like someone keeping me away from my very best friend. And at that point, I realized now what I was doing, what I was doing was I was meditating myself to sleep, I gotten into a really good practice of laying down in bed and clearing my mind of all the things until I would just pass out, basically. And that really early practice for me, has made me really good at meditating. Even without a dedicated practice, I've always been able to go pretty deep pretty quickly. And I think it stems from that really early practice of being in college, having my first business having complete and utter overwhelm, and just having to get some sleep. So I was meditating myself to sleep. That was my first that was my first go at meditating. What about you? Well, I

Kathleen Shannon 6:43
was a fan of Ninja Turtles.

Emily Thompson 6:46
Child, this is gonna be a good story. Yes, ma'am.

Kathleen Shannon 6:50
And you know, their boss splinter? Yep, the rat. He was a master meditator. And he inspired me to meditate. So I specifically remember sitting up and my friend Sean up in his fort in his backyard, and we were going to meditate. And I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing or seeing. And of course, the cartoon version of it is that you're levitating and that you're becoming enlightened. So I instantly thought, Well, I'm doing this wrong if I'm not enlightened, and I think that that self limiting belief around meditation has kind of stuck with me, like on that deep, deep level, from trying it that first time, but hard to do unrealistic ideas about what you would accomplish with meditation. But I started a yoga practice whenever I was about 15, or 16. And it was Ashtanga Yoga. And the whole point of yoga is to prepare your body for meditation. And so then going into Shavasana, really was probably the most consistent I had been with really going into that state without really knowing it at that age. And then probably more recently, I mean, a couple years before Fox was born. So this may have been like five or six years ago, I was going to the school of metaphysics in Oklahoma City. And it's so funny, even just reflecting back on that five or six years ago, I was so embarrassed to admit to anybody that I was studying metaphysics, it felt that you just know everything. I mean, now I'm just like, whatever, I still have my issues with that specific school only because they didn't do a lot of like, we did a lot of required reading, I learned so many great skills, and the school is great. If anyone from the school is listening to this, it's great. I wish that they would have given a little bit more acknowledgement or what's it called whenever you reference someone, and you references referencing, yeah, that they had given references, like, we learn this information from this stoic philosopher, or we got this exact tactic from this book, because then later as I was reading books on metaphysics, I would be like, Oh, my gosh, I learned this exact tool from a worksheet verbatim, not even adapted, but verbatim. So I think that if they had given those references, it would have felt a little bit more credible and a little less woowoo. But that's when I really started getting into metaphysics, and there was this meditation practice that I learned there really about, you know, turning on this like light within you and then expanding it out into your home and into your community and into the world. And I learned this meditation as I was building my business, and I remember specifically thinking about those vibes, attracting my dream customers. So it was also the first time I had used meditation as a way to visualize like this visualization, for business and I know that we'll get into some different tactics and meditations that we actually do, but that was really impactful. And then whenever I became pregnant with Fox, I was doing a lot of chakra alignment and even more, one day I was in Mexico meditating, I was pregnant with him. And I could see myself in a cocoon, and then his little cocoon spended within me. And it was like the most powerful, it was one of the more mystical experiences that I've had meditating. But then after I had him, we weren't sleeping. And I got into this, like almost stress spiral. I mean, you talk about being really stressed out with your business. And I definitely have suffered from insomnia on and off for the past four years. But the first, I would say, two years of his life, we weren't sleeping at all. And so I was trying to use Yoga nidra, which is a relaxation, kind of meditation to get myself to the place where if I wasn't sleeping, at least I could relax my nervous system. So I was really trying to practice that. But the problem with being stressed out and getting into the stress spiral is that I almost had surrendered to it. Like, I'm never going to be able to dig myself out of this. It was like a vicious cycle where I wasn't even inspired enough to meditate to get myself out of all of it. So I would say now, is the first time I've been inspired to like, really pick up a practice again, since having Fox,

Emily Thompson 11:16
right, because it's not like a defense mechanism. It's like you're going on the offense.

Kathleen Shannon 11:20
Exactly, exactly. Like instead, you know, and I'm glad that I had that defense and that I had that tool in my pocket to help me out as much as it could. But I'm excited to go into a practice again, with more positivity and proactivity versus reactivity. For sure. It's kind of like that. Do you ever get to the point where you're only journaling? Whenever you're like, stressed out and mad?

Emily Thompson 11:45
Yes, basically, that is my journaling ritual. It's triggered by emotion for sure. Um, but I do think there is so much to be said about that, about that choosing to do it, because you want to gain something as opposed to having to do it. So you like

Kathleen Shannon 12:03
don't die, right. And I know that that sounds like hyperbole, like hyperbole, or you know, like I'm exaggerating, but really, right. A guy. Yeah, literally.

Emily Thompson 12:14
So all of that to say we've had a very long, like, trial and error, or more like, just try and try again. But we're both to a place where like, we're going to do it right. But yeah, why has it been so hard to get to this place?

Kathleen Shannon 12:31
Oh, so I'm learning so much from this book that we're reading. So we're both reading this book called becoming supernatural by Dr. Joe dispenza, I think is his name. Yep. And I also want to say I learned a lot of this stuff that he's talking about, like bits and pieces of it from other places, but I'm learning it in a different way that's resonating on a different frequency, which is really cool. And I think with anything, kind of more supernatural or esoteric or metaphysical, it's good to learn it over and over again, from different sources. And so having this new source to learn it from is kind of reiterating some things I learned from Martha Beck specifically, I think that Martha Beck was one of the first people who taught me that if you can create the feeling that your brain and thoughts and actions will follow. And so he's talking about a lot of that here, and he talks about emotions being energy in motion. And so if what you've been conditioned to is that, you know, my metaphysics is silly, or these things don't work, or that, you know, it's all about the hustle. And that relaxing or taking time to go within is unproductive. I mean, these are self limiting beliefs that I'm sharing here that I actually hold, which is why it's so hard for me to meditate I have all this resistance against it. Because the way that I've been conditioned and brought up and I you know, even speaking about this, I want to I want to hash this out with you because I still have resistance like I still am thinking things like in my meditation, like, you know what the problem with the present moment is like, this is literally how you let that present moment habit. Like that is so egocentric of me to be the problem. Universe.

Emily Thompson 14:24
Right? Well in for me, for me, it finally was finally coming to terms with the idea that we've had so many really amazing conversations with like industry leaders and experts and all of those things. And so many of them talking talk about having a meditation practice with this idea of mindfulness or, you know, being able to control your emotions, like all of those things, and one way or another, they are all saying the same things. And it just came to a point where I was like, well then fine, I'll fucking do it. Like, just, I'll do it then. And so um, so for me, it came. That's what sort of brought me to it was like, I I just have to allot the time do it because I don't really have so many like self limiting beliefs around it, except for the one where it's less productive than all the other things that I could be doing with my time,

Kathleen Shannon 15:13
right? Like I, for me, it's like, Okay, if I'm not thinking about things, because I do get a lot done by thinking and marinating. And like, I kind of keep all my projects on a low simmer on the back burner at all times. Sometimes they're all on the front burner. And I think that's whenever I get burnt out, right. Um, but I think for me, a lot of the resistance comes in not knowing why, or at least a lot of the motivation for wanting to do it comes from knowledge, you know, knowledge is power. And the more I know, the more inspired and motivated I am to make the time and to see how it can be worthwhile. So for me, I think the thing that really ended up motivating me was thinking about is, we've got to talk this out, this is why I wanted to do it, let

Emily Thompson 16:05
me have it, Kathleen, let me

Kathleen Shannon 16:06
have it. It's kind of like some selfish stuff in it as far as like wanting to manifest some amazing things or wanting to be able to lift heavier at the gym. So this is like one of my meditation goals is to be able to lift heavier. And I think that if I can relax my nervous system, and get into that heart and brain coherence, you know, there's been a lot of studies around heart rate variability, which is the space in between your beats, and this can go into helping you manifest what you want. But it can also prep you for having a really good solid workout. And if your heart rate variability is low, it means that you should take a rest day. So I was kind of interested in it from a more physiological perspective. And that's kind of what reignited my desire to want to meditate is to get stronger with doing less, but that that also applies to work. So we're constantly talking about working smarter, not harder. And I think that meditation can be a huge part of that. Oh, shit,

Emily Thompson 17:07
that is totally just to practice what you preach, isn't it? Because that is like the epitome of working smarter with your brain instead of harder with every other part of you. Basically,

Kathleen Shannon 17:19
she it fine. So like this book that we're both reading and how far are you through it right now? Um, I'm half here. Um, okay, good. And so it talks about some brainwaves and brain coherence and think, you know, like, we're talking brain waves, like it gets real sciency I feel like probably a skeptic could read it and start to debunk it. And what's funny is that, as I'm reading this, I'm like, Oh, I wonder what a skeptic would say, which is my own inner critic or skeptic piping up. And you know, what I've done is I've chosen to just believe, like, I kind of I was also reading another book called,

Emily Thompson 17:58
I hope no snake oil salesmen are listening this right now, Kathleen has simply chosen to believe I'm turning off the skeptic.

Kathleen Shannon 18:08
Kind of I mean, so I was reading a book called this I this is so bad. I never know the names of my books, because it's all on my Kindle. And I never see the cover. I think it's called what God does to your brain. I've talked to you. I remember you talking to me about that. Anyway, this book was really cool, because it talks about people who believe in a fearful God like it, it fires up the limbic part of their brain, or people who believe in a neutral God, it fires up different parts of their brain. So it talks about then also what choosing to believe in God, like a god that's got your back and actually has, you know, its hands in things, and is supporting you like that can actually literally rewire your brain in a way that makes you a better person, or at least a more positive? And I say better, like, whatever that looks like, you know, maybe more productive or more positive, or you're more helpers. Yeah, exactly. Or more compassionate, or whatever. And so I'm kind of taking what I learned from that book as far as just choosing to believe it. And I do think that skepticism is important, and that those people have their role. It's not the role that I'm wanting to take, I guess is what I'm saying. Like, I like to go into this whole hearted and open hearted. And because I can see and feel that it's going to make a difference. And I know that whenever I had that meditation practice, where I was shining my light into the entire world as I was growing my business and as I was aligning my chakras as I was growing a baby and also growing my business, that it had some like real life impacts or if I look at what was different between feeling like I'm hitting blocks, you know, in business now versus feeling that abundance and flow before the difference might be meditation. I mean, there's all sorts of variables but I think that meditation is one that I want to bring back into the realm of my business and overcoming blocks in that way.

Emily Thompson 20:08
I love it. I love all of that, which is gonna sound really silly when I say all I really wanted to get out, I was some peace and quiet.

Kathleen Shannon 20:17
And I say, right. Emily's sitting on your porch, because I feel like you're a good porch sitter. And like,

Emily Thompson 20:24
Oh, it's my favorite thing to do. I know, professional boards, for sure.

Kathleen Shannon 20:28
And I remember asking you, what are you thinking about? Whenever you're sitting on the porch? And you were like, What? Nothing?

Emily Thompson 20:33
Nothing? And nothing at

Kathleen Shannon 20:35
all? or meditation?

Emily Thompson 20:36
Yeah. So. So for just before the holidays, it was probably about the time that I started meditating. I don't remember it doesn't have anything directly to do with it, I guess, is what I'm saying. A friend of mine came over and asked, like, what do you guys want for Christmas? The first thing that came out, like into my head and out of my mouth, at the same time, was quiet. All I wanted for Christmas was just some quiet. And for me getting up and meditating in the morning, is finding the like ultimate quiet, where I can really get into my headspace. And even like, control what I hear or not, because I've even meditated like midday with Lily running around the house. And like I can block it out. And so for me, it's that practice of finding my own peace and quiet, that has really driven me to doing it and doing it, you know, for three months at this point. So I have definitely enjoyed some of the other benefits of it. And I know we'll get into those in a second. But for me, I went into it like less exploring all the possibilities, and more of just like wanting some quiet.

Unknown Speaker 21:53
And I've gotten that thus far.

Kathleen Shannon 22:02
Do you feel like you have any sort of addiction to hustle or the stress or the noise? I mean, if what you were wanting was quiet.

Emily Thompson 22:11
And no, I don't think I have an addiction to I see the necessity of it. But I also like countering it with the exact opposite. Like I think my capacity to hustle is benefited from my ability are benefited by my ability of pulling all the way away from it. I'm definitely one side of the spectrum or the other usually, rarely do I fall in the middle of anything. That's what I've been that's was my my like course of action of getting into it was just trying to find my own peace of quiet. But I've definitely found other things along the way. Like for me, I've definitely found more focus or like more of an ability to focus, which really just comes from having more control over my own like thought processes. So being able to focus on what I'm doing, or even recognizing when I'm not able to focus. Because there are times when you just can't instead of trying when you can't be able to let go of that expectation of focus and just walk away and go do something else. So that one's been a really fun, fun outcome for me that I've enjoyed from doing some brain exercises.

Kathleen Shannon 23:26
So I think what's really cool is that we were talking about our intentions and values and what we want to call in for 2018. And this is kind of we recorded that mini was a minisode or full episode minisode minisode, where we talked about our intention. So if you haven't listened to that spoiler alert, Emily's intention for the year is peace. And mine is abundance and style I have to abundance. Basically, I know it's come back to abundance really truly. Um, but as I'm meditating, I am kind of thinking about abundance. And this is where it gets tricky for me with meditation. And maybe I even need a meditation teacher to coach me through this. But I like to do this thing where whenever I start meditating, I'm aligning my chakras I'm kind of calling in and getting specific about my intention. So if for the day that's abundance, I also think doing a daily Tarot poll can help me figure out what I want to focus my intention on in that meditation. So I try and like focus on that and get specific about how that might manifest. And then I try and let it go and just go out into space. And I almost think about it as getting a vibrational tune up from the universe. That's kind of how I've always thought of it. And I want to share kind of what it feels like. Because for me lately, whenever I've been able to get deep into my meditation, it almost feels like you know, whenever you've had too much to drink and you lay down and you get the spins. It's like That, but instead of spinning, it's like dropping down. But it's that same feeling of, I recognize that feeling, do you I'm talking about, like, down into it. And then sometimes I'll drop down into that feeling. And I'll get real excited, and I'll come back out of it. So it really is trying to just practice are all sort of thinking about what I want to manifest. And then like, oh, but I shouldn't be thinking. So a big part of meditation, this kind of comes back to resistance is also judging Catholic. I know judgy while you're there. So I come back into like, My problem with the present moment. And what I'm learning about meditation is that it's like nothing, nowhere. Never none. There's no time. There's no boundaries, there's no skin, there's no like, there's nothing, your identity is just gone, which is really liberating and beautiful and amazing. But the hard thing with that, or where I'm challenged right now with that, is that I have to think about a lot of it is like present moment like don't worry about the future don't hang out in the past, is I'm a human being in a body. And to have context for what feels like the most loving feeling in the world. I have to think about holding my son for the first time, or I have to think about if I want to think about enthusiasm around like my family or excitement, I have to think about going to Disney World and the time that we all wore red matching jumpsuits like and these moments in my human experience, I felt divine, like they have felt so connected and amazing. I have to draw on this or our parade in New Orleans that we had, like, I have to draw on these memories I have imprinted themselves in my body, these positive ones in order to cultivate more of that feeling. But is that eliminating me from cultivating even like higher vibes? And how do I get past that? In my present moment?

Emily Thompson 27:02
Now? I don't know. It's a damn good question, Kathleen. Because you can also look at like the other side of this where like, if you are thinking about manifesting like you are like, thinking ahead at what you want, and what you're what you want your life to be like. I think we just need to be practicing a little bit more of letting go of all those things and simply calling in the feelings without attaching them to memory. Maybe that's what it is.

Kathleen Shannon 27:25
I know. I think it's also funny that after three days, I'm like we need to podcast about this. I know you're halfway done with this book. And at the same time, like this morning, I forgot my shoes going to the gym and I used to train barefoot and it was no big deal because I worked out in a gym with like minded people who also trained barefoot. Anyway, I got kicked out of my gym. For being barefoot. I wouldn't be like what about all these Yogi's walking around barefoot like just because I'm doing deadlifts barefoot. Anyway, so I was driving home to get my toe shoes, which are not any more hygienic or safe than my bare feet. But whatever. I was driving home to get my toe shoes, and I cried a little like, I was just feeling really sensitive and like, Oh, they didn't like my feet to them. I judge myself for being upset. And he's like, I'm meditating. How am I? What? I've been meditating for three days, why am I even crying right now.

Emily Thompson 28:29
So dear Catholic, right. And this is this is why people who talk about meditating shouldn't be too terribly high and mighty because this is how life really goes meditating or not. Right? I mean, meditating is not an immediate fix of all things, by any means. I mean, I've started Almanac through my like, three months of meditating, and there have been plenty of tears and like frowny feelings, and all of those things, like definitely doesn't solve problems, what it has for me, and what it sounds like for you to Kathleen, is that it makes you more aware of the feelings you're having, as opposed to just feeling them in becoming, you know, almost like,

Kathleen Shannon 29:15
okay, so I'm totally hearing you here is that like being more tuned into your feelings and where they're happening in your body, and also not being beholden to those feelings or letting those feelings Be who you are in that moment,

Emily Thompson 29:30
right, you just recognize them as like a feeling that you're having in this moment, you can choose not to have them if you want, which is like, more or less the state of feelings, like they're just things that sort of pass through. And either you grab them and hold on to them, and let them guide you or you're just like, Alright, I'm gonna give that one up, or I'll feel it for a second and then let it go or whatever it may be.

Kathleen Shannon 29:54
I think that's what's been really helpful for me is in meditating and in my practice of metta hating becoming more tuned in. And so even I know for me, even if I get the smallest little bit of feedback that might be perceived as criticism, I can feel so bad like, I can just take it so personal and really feel that kind of shame versus guilt feeling around it where like, I'm not saying, Oh, I shouldn't do that anymore. I'm like taking it to the level of like, I'm the worst, you know. And so for me, I'm be able to recognize whenever I'm having that moment of like, no, that's not actually how I have to interpret this, like, I can interpret this in a different way. And I can feel that feeling in my body and let it go. Like you were saying,

Emily Thompson 30:43
Yeah, yeah. And I think that's an important practice. I mean, I wish they teach you shit like this in school, like, imagine if we all just grew up with these really great skills of recognizing that you are not your feelings, like, wouldn't that be great. And so on one hand, it kind of makes me sad that I'm just now getting this into this in my early 30s, but also grateful that I can get into this and at least my early 30s, so that I have so much more control over what the rest of my life looks like. Because that, that's really the thing with meditation, I think, are not really the thing, it's a thing is the fact that it's giving you the ability to recognize that you control your own mind. And if you want to be quiet, you make it quiet. And if you want to, you know, hold those feelings, you hold them, if you want to let them go, you let them go, whatever it may be. And through that process, you're able to control everything in your life, whether that's your relationships, or your working situation, or all of those things. And whether it's whether it's actually controlling those situations, or controlling how you're affected by those situations, that allows you to control your life in a whole other way that I think just plays into, like what we do as creative entrepreneurs and what we teach in terms of take control of your work and live life on your own terms. It can be hardcore, practiced through meditation,

Kathleen Shannon 32:12
at least, one thing that you mentioned is being in your 30s. And I think that this is something I'm coming up against, as I'm, you know, in my mid 30s is feeling like, okay, it's set now. And even in this book, they acknowledge that that something happens in your brain and your mid 30s really like okay, this is just who I am. And just kind of saying that the habits and routines I've established whenever I was a dumb ass 20 year old or even younger, are now who I am Nananana No, I want to be able to grow and expand and have adventures and abundance and a life that I haven't lived yet. And in order for that to happen, I have to get into my subconscious and reprogram what I believe is possible. And I have to do that by really getting quiet and tuning in and letting go.

Emily Thompson 33:08
So I want to know how you do it.

Kathleen Shannon 33:09
Yeah, so so some really practical stuff here. I really like taking all of the different tools that I've learned over the past, you know, since I was probably 15, with yoga or shoot, even with Ninja Turtles, so taking all the different methods and tools that I've learned from meditation and really combining them and trying new things. And I want to emphasize not that I'm an expert in this. But there is no wrong way to meditate. There are certainly ways that you can meditate that are going to be more effective and more efficient. But I think that even if you just sit down and breathe for a minute, you're going to see psychological and physiological positive effects in your body and in your mind. So that's first and foremost. But the way that I like to meditate and the way that I've been developing my practice in the past three days,

Emily Thompson 34:05
just not say that.

Kathleen Shannon 34:07
I'm glad I'm doing this for a long time. But I am I am really re energized to be more consistent in the same way that I'm disciplined about working out every morning, I want to bring meditation into that as well. And so I've been starting with my morning, so in the morning, I wake up. And the first thing I do is I take note of what my dream was because again, I'm about tuning into my subconscious and that 95% of my brain that is not active and awake and aware whenever I'm here at work or reading a book or whatever. I'm trying to tap into that subconscious. And I think one of the best ways to tap into your subconscious is to tell it you're listening, and a great way to tell your subconscious that you're listening as by recording your dreams and paying attention to them and then interpreting them and taking the symbolism from your dreams and making meaning out of it. So that's first and foremost. Then I like too. And there's some methods that Joe dispenza is talking about in his book that I'm trying out, including some breathing exercises, and then I'm visualizing aligning my chakras. And then from there, I've been going back into that. So I'm sitting up, like, I sit up in bed, and I'm doing this. And then I go into that meditation that I was talking about before, where I really think about my heart. And I think about like a flame burning in it. And I, I kind of give it a color lately has been green because your heart chakra is green. But sometimes it might be a different color, I'll just go with what I'm feeling. And sometimes I do this from starting from different parts of my body. So sometimes I'll do it coming from my third eye, or I'll do it coming from my solar plexus. But lately, it's been my heart. And I think about my heart being this orb of light that's growing and filling my body and then filling the room, and then filling the house and then filling my neighborhood. and expanding out across the states. I think about it going over the ocean. And I've even been visualizing like this light, touching all the animals and kids and pollution and kind of cleaning that up and like just really trying to do my best to send all these good vibes. And I visualize it and I go all the way around. Right now, it's been ending in Australia, because my brother's performing there. So I imagine it like going all the way down to Australia, and you know, wishing him the best luck. And then I go out into space, and I go as far as I can possibly imagine with my brain. And that helps me get into that place of nothingness. And then I, that's whenever I start being aware of my body really, and I that's where I go out for that vibrational tune up, and I try and think about nothing. So like I've set my intention. I've said My blessings, I've, you know, tried to help out all the animals being affected by pollution, you know, I'm trying to do all that stuff. I also during that phase, I might think about my intention, whether that's abundance or style, or peace or family or whatever it is for the day, I'll kind of like set my intention or you know, prayer might be another word for it, or whatever it might be in that moment. And then I expand out and then whenever I expand out, I really try and go into nothingness and just focus on either my breath or not even my breath. I'm trying to just really be nothing. So that's where I get that vibrational tune up and kind of dropping that spinning feeling I was talking about. That's where I really start to drop in. And then from there sometimes I know I'm done because it sounds It feels like someone's like splashed a cold bucket of water down my back. Good. Yeah. Or sometimes, you know, foxes usually in the bed with me, he'll start stirring and so I'll come back. I pretend like I'm wading through all that light back into my body. And then I wake up and that's it. That's beautiful. Yeah. What about you? What about you?

Emily Thompson 38:12
I've done similar ones with like the super expansive meditations I find whenever I do those though, I need to like come back and do like a reinforcement of my like personal boundaries when we're like I almost expand so far that like me as a relatively sensitive introvert need to like reward myself.

Kathleen Shannon 38:32
Ooh, yeah, that's good. Right? I was crying this morning.

Emily Thompson 38:37
Made reground you had like soaked up everything basically. So I do find the need to do that whenever I do is super expensive meditation like that. I don't really do many recordings though. I will say like I have done the headspace app before His voice is very calming, for sure. But I tend to just drop into nothingness relatively easily. I do it sitting in bed most often or sometimes I'll move to the couch for the past like week or so I've actually been coming into the office and not coming to my desk but I like I have a nice squishy rug over there and a space here so I'll sit in front of space heater and sit on my nice squishy rug which is great because that is totally like the reason I created that part of my office so to finally be using it for the reason I created it is gratifying in a lot of ways. Um, but I usually say I like to hold crystals whenever I meditate and depending on what crystal It is like aligning it with that shocker like thinking about that chakra in relationship to like the whatever crystal is my hand. And then I also I have some like good forest meditations that I do because I found for me, whenever it comes to like that peace and quiet. It's going into the forest and my mind and like for all Looking around or walking around, and whatever it may be, but for me going into, like sacred space, and that way, if I'm doing like a visual meditation, that's what it's going to be. But I also don't tend to have a super hard time just sort of dropping into that nothingness and opening my eyes 40 minutes later. That's weird.

Kathleen Shannon 40:22
I love that. I mean, I've been really needing that visualization to give my brain something to focus on, other than my to do list. So the visualization for me has been really helping and I do a forest meditation also, like when I'm walking through a forest, and then I will end up walking through a city and then out the city into sand, and then I get to a beach. And then I'm like digging my toes into the sand, and then go into that really meditative state right there.

Emily Thompson 40:50
I love that I know, yeah, I'm all for it,

Kathleen Shannon 40:53
you might be some digging rice, sand and sun. Um,

Emily Thompson 40:58
I do love that, actually, I'm doing that next time.

Kathleen Shannon 41:01
And we're gonna do an episode on, you know, seasonality, and living seasonally. But one thing that I did is today is a full moon and really visualizing the full moon also in my meditation. So I'm trying to make it a little bit topical. Another thing that I wanted to say, and again, this goes in the realm of there's no wrong way to do it. And I know that before I've been, I've wanted to be really dogmatic, like this is how I'm meditating. And this is the only kind of meditation I'm doing. But now I'm just mixing it all up. So I've also been popping in the sauna after my workouts and putting on like a Shimano ik drumming track that I found on YouTube. And I

Emily Thompson 41:38
love some Tibetan singing bowls, just gonna throw that out there.

Kathleen Shannon 41:42
So then, like, that's the only kind of, you know, having that music and that repetition and thinking about my heart beating as I'm, as I'm listening to that, and then also sweating my ass off in a sauna. Like, that's kind of interesting. It's an interesting way to meditate. And then at night, I have been going back to yoga nidra. So again, I think of yoga nidra more as a relaxation technique than a meditation though I have been finding that I'm dropping into those brain waves that create that coherence in that meditative state. But again, I think of that more as like a way to fall asleep and relax my muscles, I wanted to mention that I have found whenever I'm taking magnesium at night, I'm able to drop in so much easier. Interesting. So the magnesium I take for those of you who might be curious, it's called calm ca lm and I just dissolve it in some water, I take about teaspoon, don't take more than teaspoon, he will shut your brains out the next morning. Like that's a side effect of magnesium and

Emily Thompson 42:49
meditate during that.

Kathleen Shannon 42:52
He is awesome if you have a hard time going, but just want to throw that out there. It's like a muscle relaxants, and it will relax your bowels. Right? Well,

Emily Thompson 43:01
I love that you have joined me in this meditation practice, for sure. I think that I think it's just like, kind of like the ultimate self care, like one of those self care rituals that like is remain relatively selfish, like, I'm just gonna be quiet for five minutes or whatever. But like that's, that could seem super selfish. And it's one that like, where there is going to be very little external validation. Like, it's all just for you, basically. So I feel like it is like Setsuna

Kathleen Shannon 43:28
recert manifesting everything right, you're gonna get all the external validation. This is where I had to check myself though. And remember that I'm not doing this just for the things. And the paradox here is that whenever you can drop into meditation, you become grateful for what you already have. And it makes you want for less, which is cool, too.

Emily Thompson 43:48
But at the same time, probably attracting more, which is where the paradox comes in. I love all of that. And I think I think that actually, I know that it's going to make us better at what we do. It's going to make us more thoughtful and more appreciative and more grateful, probably significantly healthier in ways that we can only imagine. I'm looking forward to finally stepping up our bossiness in this way that both of us have been resisting for probably far too long.

Kathleen Shannon 44:18
It feels really badass to be going on this journey. And I'm glad we're doing it together. So listeners if you want to join us, we're both reading right now becoming supernatural by Joe dispenza. Another resource I really like is Martha Beck and her books. I think it's finding your True North Star. I just butchered that.

Emily Thompson 44:41
Being false club,

Kathleen Shannon 44:43
the link in the show notes again, I never know the names of any books, but she includes some really great meditations in that book as well. But I would say kind of on a more like serendipity level. If you're interested in meditation, just start opening yourself up to it and I think the resource You need will find you.

Emily Thompson 45:02
Ooh, girl. Oh, yeah, I know. Yeah, this book for me didn't show up until probably a month and a half or two after I got or after I started. And since then several funny little opportunities have come up around meditating, whether it's other resources or even interesting conversations, like all these things, like if you, if you want to do the thing, the thing will come to you.

Kathleen Shannon 45:26
I like it.

Unknown Speaker 45:27
That's it.

Unknown Speaker 45:28
Let's meditate, get our Zen on. Show meditating.

Emily Thompson 45:41
We have gotten so much amazing feedback over the years from listeners about how our podcast has helped them start to grow and uplevel their businesses. So we want to celebrate you. Here's the boss we're celebrating this week.

Unknown Speaker 45:54
Hi, my name is Jen Pollard and I am being bought. I'm an online interior decorator at WWW dot Park Place designs dotnet. And this week, I'm celebrating a rain nation of my business. I'm announcing loud and proud that I'm a kid's designer. My passion is partnering with families to make room stylish, comfortable, functional and individualized. I came to design later in life because I was a preschool teacher first. I stayed home with my boys. And then once they started going off to school, I decided it was a chance to try something new. I've always loved interior design. So I went back took some classes got certified and I opened my virtual doors. This is my third year and honestly I'm still struggling a bit. I haven't quite hit my stride. But this direction feels so right for me that I'm bursting at the seams. I feel dorka wiggity falling a dream and taking risks to do so to me it's been

Kathleen Shannon 46:47
if you're feeling boss and when to submit your own boss moment or when go to WWW dot being boss dot club slash I am being boss. This episode of being boss was brought to you by fresh books cloud accounting, thank you to fresh books for sponsoring us and you guys can try it for free by going to freshbooks comm slash being boss. Thank you for listening to being boss. Find Articles show notes and downloads at WWW dot being boss club. Thank you so much to our team and sponsors who make being boss possible our sound engineer and web developer Corey winter. Our editorial director and content manager Caitlin brain, our community manager and social media director Sharon lukey. And our bean counter David Austin, with support from braid creative and indicia typography,

Emily Thompson 47:35
do the work. Be boss and we'll see you next week.