So every single time that you and I get on this microphone, we have all these great things we say. And some of it's kind of personal because we're good friends. And so it's like, I like to sort of touch base before I start recording, but then every time I'm like, Audrey, I should have hit record you.

Because we're so interesting to listen to. We say so many good things.

You're kind of like, the guard is down and you just catch up on.

What'S going on in life and then it flows out of you.

It's good stuff.

Well, this episode is all about paying attention to how you feel and how you feel is important or whatever it's going to end up being titled. And it was because we both got on this call and we were both like, should we just quit photography and buy a farm?

Yes.

Just kidding.

I don't know if it's like a May June bug that I get bit with every year because everything's growing out of everything is coming alive and it makes me come alive and I'm like, I just want to roll in the grass with a chicken. That's all I want to do all day.

Relatable.

Or if it's like 13 years of doing something kind of the similar ish way and then going maybe either the business needs to evolve in some way, shape or form, which is always a good thing. Or maybe there's some other thing I want to share my time with. And not always put photography on the top shelf, meaning the best pedestal, whatever. Not like the for me, top shelves are like where things go to die because I'm five one. So I didn't mean it like that. I meant I've been putting it on bottom cover, I've been putting it on the pedestal. Maybe it needs to go on. Like, maybe it needs to be like a bronze medal and maybe my tarot is in there, it's growing, it's so fun. But maybe these are all just things we were talking about, just how we feel.

I love that analogy.

It's weird because I feel like our.

Paths are always just like parallel. We're always like on the same one, see each other through the brush, like, hey, yes. I've been having the same feeling of.

Well, the way I explained it to you is I've always had this vision.

And goal of what I wanted my photo business to be. And I don't feel like I've quite.

Hit it yet, so I've just been.

Continuing towards that goal. But lately, like the last, I would.

Say year, it's been brewing, this feeling of like I don't know what you.

Describe it, discontent or just kind of.

Off the not as excited about what I'm doing. And it just hit me the other week, I was like, I just don't.

Think I want that to be my goal anymore. I've outgrown that goal. That's not my goal. And you feel like, oh, if you haven't hit it, then you can't move it to the next thing.

But I almost feel like the carrot.

Is just always going to be right out of my reach. I'm just not really interested in what's funny.

The carrot can be like the goal or the carrot or whatever can be a major distraction. It can be a massive tool for those of us that need organization. I've done podcast episodes about goals. We all know that they are helpful, but they can be a huge distraction if, and this is just going to sound cliche as hell, like you're not enjoying the getting there part because you're not going to get there, and then everything's great if you're not enjoying the getting there. If you don't feel good doing it, if you don't feel good going to the goal, the goal isn't going to make you feel better. Which brought me to that Abraham quote, which I thought was kind of like we were talking about feelings, right? And for anyone listening, that's like barf Law of Attraction or if you don't know Abraham, abraham is a channel who has been working for many decades in this field and just has very high vibe wisdom to share that is not cultish or there's no prerequisite that you have to believe in anything. It's just a nice way of teaching what I think are timeless lessons, and there's a reason for that. So I thought because feelings are kind of the theme of what we're talking about, I would just read this Abraham quote that I shared with you. Because even if you don't give a crap about Law of Attraction, I think it's a useful thing that we can share here and then just chat about, because I think it's completely relevant. And anybody that's like about their business or whatever it is, whatever you're feeling eh, about, like, whatever carrot is distracting you from feeling good, this is for you. All right? I get these emails every day. I've been getting them for, like, I don't know, seven or eight years, and it's just from Abraham, but I kind of skimmed some of them. This one really hit home today.

The universe does not know if the vibration you are offering is because of what you are imagining or because of what you are observing. In either case, it is responding. Emotion is your guidance or your response to your vibration. Your emotion does not create. Emotion is your indicator of what you are already creating as you think you vibrate. And it is your vibrational offering that equals your point of attraction. So what you are thinking and what is coming back to you is always a vibrational match. The emotional guidance system is just telling you what's coming. I love it, this idea of manifest your dream life and stuff. I say that in a sarcastic way, kind of Teasy way, because it's like I think we're taught a lot of these smart, deep wisdom things the wrong way. And I think this one is especially that way because you can look at yourself in the mirror and be like, I'm happy. But if you don't feel happy, like that quote says, your emotions are basically all the time kind of telling you what you're thinking. I mean, really telling you where you're projecting your energy. So if you're feeling poopy a lot, even though you might be telling yourself you're not, there's something stuck there that needs to be kind of aligned so that when you say you feel happy, you actually feel happy. If that makes sense.

Yeah, and I love the part in the beginning where it's like the universe doesn't know the difference between what you.

Are observing so like what is actually.

Happening in real life or what you're thinking, what you're imagining in your head. I just think that's something to sit.

And process a little bit because if it doesn't know the difference, then you.

Could imagine some really beautiful things for.

Yourself and they'll start to come true.

Possibly.

I think that's part of our power. Part of our power is that it's not that just by sitting in a room imagining beautiful things, everything will change. But you will walk differently through the world. You will be more attractive to different types of people by the way that you speak, act, carry yourself. But you'll also be less interested in things that throw you off that vibe. That's basically kind of how it works. It's like you do have the agency in it. It's not just like a magnet situation, but it's like both. It's like you are attracting a different type of life to yourself based on how you appear to others and based on what you like. I don't want to be thrown off a happy vibe like right now. I was telling you outside of some photo business stuff just this time of year makes me so happy. And if someone's going to be grumpy and poopy about it, I notice it more when I'm happy that I don't want to be around that energy. But when I'm not so happy, I don't notice it as much because there isn't such a contrast between where I'm feeling and what that person's feeling. So that's kind of how it works in a nutshell. I'm not like a seasoned guru or anything, but it just makes sense to me that we show up differently in the world and receive differently in the world when we're feeling good.

When our emotions are up?

Yeah.

Have you ever had a day where you just feel you're feeling yourself? Whether it's like you think you look good and you just feel really happy and bubbly and you go out in.

The world and the next day you.

Could just be like the total opposite and be really anxious and.

Low self esteem or whatever it is.

But when you're acting like or when you're feeling not acting, feeling so good.

About yourself and you're out in the world interacting with it, what you're going.

To get is completely different than what.

You'Re going to get when you're feeling the other way.

The hard part is like, how do you make yourself feel good when you're not feeling good?

Yeah, because it's so much easier said than done.

I'm not saying, like, oh, you're depressed. Just try to be happy and it'll be better.

Right. One of Abraham's most regular teachings is, like, you can't go from low, low, low to high, high, high in one leap. You have to climb the emotional ladder, I think is one of the analogies which makes so much sense. So you have to go from being enraged to being angry, and then maybe being angry to being a little depressed, and then from being a little depressed to maybe just feeling a little whatever the hierarchy of emotions is. And there's actually I think there's some resources out there that kind of talk about that, like, the intensity of emotions and where they fall, like love and appreciation, being at the high, high, high end. And one of the ways you can get your I talk about this in my tarot readings a lot, too, is like, you can just do it incrementally. So if you're feeling the lowest of the low, anything at all, you were talking about, like, the rabbit in the yard, just like, stretching out in the sun. It's like that little moment of appreciation will bring you, like, a tiny notch from just a little better than whatever that emotion is.

Like a higher pitched minute. Yeah.

Or like, you know what? I'm going to go for a walk. Just ten minutes. There's all these little ways we can do it. Take a nap, grab a cup of coffee that you love or whatever, but it's like this slow climb, and it sometimes takes days and even weeks to climb it. But if you can continually find appreciation, it's almost impossible not to slowly start feeling a little bit better.

I did exactly this. This reminded me last week. I was having a day where I was really overwhelmed and anxious. My house was a mess and behind and everything.

My computer broke, and I was borrowing.

A computer that was working really slow, but I have stuff to get done. So I was sitting there, just that feeling. It's like all the way up in my chest and my throat of like, I'm so overwhelmed and annoyed.

Yeah.

I knew that I had stuff to.

Get done, so I want to just keep pushing through it. But I was in such an icky headspace that I'm like, I'm not going.

To be productive from here at all.

And I just need to not feel like this.

So then I just decided to go.

Sit outside with a book. But then I was even too irritated to read a book. So I brought, like, seven different books with me to see which one would feel, and I found one that was.

A good alignment with what I was.

Feeling was the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck.

Oh, that's a great book.

And I just sat out there and.

I started to read, and I probably read, like, ten pages, but I felt so much better in 30 minutes of just being out there. My cat was out there with me.

And then I got up and I went inside and I cleaned up the.

Kitchen, and I was like, all right, now I can do this.

I love that.

It was crazy. I'm like, wow, it works. I love that it doesn't margarita to feel better.

I think the core thing here we've talked about this before, but it's worth talking about all the time. All the time is that we are conditioned to think that by doing, quote unquote, nothing, that we're not doing anything productive or whatever the value statement is, like, we're supposed to be doing doing. But since moving, I'm more out of the city, and I'm just surrounded by a lot more nature and temporarily house sitting for a few months. But it's amazing, and I find myself spending a lot of time doing what you just said. Like, I'm going to just go sit outside because I'm, like, looking at my computer, thinking about my photo business and some of the changes I want to make, and then I start kind of feeling that tightness and that frustration. You feel it in your body, like your chest, your gut, whatever. And I'm just like I coach this all the time, like, in the greenhouse. Don't try and get stuff done from that place. That's not the place where you're going to suddenly get the greatest idea ever because you're feeling frustrated, you have to reset, and then the great idea will come in, you know? So it's like the sitting outside could be the most productive thing you've done all day.

Yes.

That's where everyone goes, OOH.

And I love this time of year. I just go out there for, like and I work mostly from home, so I just go out there, eat my lunch out there, breakfast out there. Ten minute break. Here to pick a weed. I got a book from the library, two books, actually, about how to identify the weeds in my yard and what they are. And last Friday night, I sat and read through my weeds books, and I.

Was like, this is so fun.

Yeah, I love it.

I am learning how to make medicinal tinctures and salves and oils and things from foraging plants. That's what I'm on a kick about lately. It's just never ending. It's a magical place to be out there. So find your magical place, I think is really the point here, and pay attention to how you feel if you're saying, like, well, I say my affirmations every morning great, but if you don't feel them, you're just mouthing words.

Can I share a tip about Affirmations that I heard once that really hit home for me because Affirmations, it's taking me a long time to kind of understand how law of attraction actually works. And like, Affirmations, I'm like, okay, I can say I'm hot and sexy, but if I don't feel it, how is this even? But if you say an Affirmation, then follow it up with a real life example of why it's true. So I am strong and capable because XYZ and give a real example of something, it kind of just helps register. Like that is true.

Yeah, that makes way more sense. I've never been a big Affirmations person. Intentions or desires have been a big thing. I like to feel, as I was saying, feel into what I want to bring into my life. But I've always struggled with that too. Like just like reading something like, I am happy and joyful and if you don't have an example to attach it to, then you're just saying things, right?

I am filthy rich and have a yacht. No, I don't. I have a Ford Fusion.

Yeah, I think there's a lot here, but I I definitely when it comes back to photo business stuff, like there are photo that I look at, that I've taken. I was going back through my old archives like eight, nine years ago and some of these sessions I was like, oh my God. I was like, really a good photographer. And obviously in a lot of ways I've gotten better because I've been doing it so long. But there's something about the art and the mood you're in that isn't easily duplicated. I guess in the sense that wherever I was at then, I was creating slightly different art than I was creating five years after that and now or whatever. And when I come across a photo or a session that makes me feel something, like excitement or OOH, I love that. That's how I want to feel in my work. I want to feel that more often than not. And so what I'm exploring right now, when when we got on this call and I was like, oh God. I think it's that I am looking to build my business around some different types of shoots or sessions or offerings that I want to explore. Not really starting from scratch, but kind of like bringing back some stuff to the forefront that I've kind of not been showing for a long, long time. And just to see how that feels again, it might be that it's not like the answer or whatever, but it's definitely a start to feeling better, I think.

Yeah, that's exactly kind of the process I had in my head.

I was like, I don't think I.

Feel good about this goal anymore, so I think I don't want to do that anymore. And then I started to think about what does feel good. And it became really clear, like, what types of sessions I only want to do, what types of weddings I only want to do.

And I was like, okay, what if.

I just say that's what I do and that's all that I do. I'll never feel that ick feeling again.

It feels so good. There's a photographer here in town. I'm not going to call anyone out because whatever. And they have a studio, and they are very good at the exact thing that I don't ever want to do again. And so it made me actually happy to discover them because I'm like, oh, look, I just found someone. I wrote it down. I found someone that I can refer clients to when they're like, we have four families getting together and we want a portrait by the lake of all the generations. And when people say that to me, I'm like, that is not what I want to do at all. Like pose people together and get a beautiful but this person is really good at it. Lights and great staging and everything looks great. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is awesome. I can just send someone there and that help me define myself more, too. The contrast is so helpful. It's like, I don't want to do that, but they're great at it. So, Rising Tide, I will send you all of my people.

Yeah.

I think the one thing that stops a lot of people from making these choices towards the good feeling is the fear of money. That's a reality for so many people.

The fear of not making enough money.

Or scaring people away.

But I'm going to try it.

I'm just going to do it and see. I just have a feeling that it's not going to be what I think it is. It's going to be even better.

It's going to be like making room.

For lots of good stuff to come my way.

Exactly. It's so often what I think, what keeps us it's like the fool card is all about, right? Like stepping into the unknown, stepping off the cliff. Cliff and trusting. It's just all about trust. And I think the lesson in how you feel is if you're feeling good, you can trust that if you're feeling good, that's the place to take the leap. That's the place to like, you might not be able to see the how, but that's when you're going to walk through the world in a good way and that things will happen. So I think that's really important.

Yes, I agree. Life's too short to not just feel good all the time, all the time. I mean, you're not going to feel good all the time because that's life.

But if you can control what you.

Do feel good about or take the opportunity to feel good as much as.

Possible, yeah, there has to be contrast, but that's what moves us along. And I want to learn from the contrast. I just don't want to sit in it.

Exactly.

I don't want to live in it. I want to be like, oh, not that you need it. I think that thing that I mentioned to you is important to bring up again. It's like, what are you afraid to let go of for fear that something else won't show up to take its place? We cling to things all the time, and you mentioned money, and it's like, okay, what if you just stopped offering XYZ in your business? Because it's that one part of photography you hate. What are you making room for? You don't know. And it might not even be you might not be able to see it at all. It might be like some awesome like, you had an amazing offer that you shared on Facebook with your photography related job, but you're working with other people, and it's still in the industry, but it's just not like you weren't sitting down thinking about that necessarily. It's just something that came to you, and it was perfect timing. And so I think letting go of what isn't feeling good and not being fearful of it, but just being like, look how much more space I have for something that does feel good.

Yeah, I'm just going to do it.

I'm excited for the things ahead because it just feels good.

I'm excited to pick this threat up at some point and just be like, so what did we learn from that? Did anything happen?

Yeah, I know. Let's check in in six months and be like, okay.

Yeah.

Remember on June 13?

Yeah. Really, though? Yeah.

You all are my witness. Now I got to do it.

We have many witnesses, so hopefully this help anybody who's feeling a little poopy to, I don't know, something in here.

Change your diaper and not feel poopy anymore and go for the good feeling. I think we should just not.

Yes. By the way, we're recording this, like, at coffee time, not alcohol time. Yeah, but we're just in that kind.

Of mood, which I haven't even really had.

I know. It's morning. It's morning time. All right, well, thank you, Audrey. I love talking about this stuff.

And same.

I'm happy that we could talk about this. I hope you have a feel good rest of your week.

You too. Hope you get lots of walks in the yard, guaranteed. And find all the guaranteed.

Guaranteed. Okay, I'll talk to you soon. Bye.