Welcome back to become a calm mama. I'm your host. I'm Darlene
Speaker:Childress. I'm a life and parenting coach. And on the
Speaker:podcast, we have been working through a series that I've called how
Speaker:to heal, and I've been walking you through what I'm
Speaker:calling the hierarchy of healing. This is a six
Speaker:part series. This is gonna be episode four. So if you haven't
Speaker:listened to the other ones, you may wanna go back and
Speaker:listen to radical self love, radical trust,
Speaker:radical honesty. This is radical listening.
Speaker:And I recommend you do that because, really, each of
Speaker:the parts of the hierarchy of healing sort
Speaker:of require the previous pieces
Speaker:in place. So for example, if I wanna heal
Speaker:from a negative pattern of yelling at my kids
Speaker:or overeating or hyper productivity
Speaker:or people pleasing or any of those things, I'm gonna need to
Speaker:start from a premise, from a foundation of self
Speaker:love. If I use shame as a whip
Speaker:or self hatred or self loathing as a
Speaker:tool to get me to change my behavior, I'm
Speaker:not gonna experience the freedom and the wholeness
Speaker:that healing brings because I'm really just masking
Speaker:pain. And I'm using self loathing or self
Speaker:hatred to get me to act better.
Speaker:None of us really wanna act better. What we really want is to feel
Speaker:better. Right? We wanna feel freedom. We wanna feel joy. We
Speaker:wanna feel gratitude. We wanna feel peace. We wanna
Speaker:feel calm. We wanna feel security and safety
Speaker:inside of ourselves kinda no matter what's happening. We wanna feel present.
Speaker:That's really what healing is, and we can't really
Speaker:heal from something unless we start from that belief that
Speaker:I'm good enough. I'm worthy. I'm lovable. I'm enough.
Speaker:Then from there, I can start to practice feeling safe with myself.
Speaker:Alright. I'm gonna tell you some things, darling. And in this
Speaker:process, I need you to trust I need to trust that you're not gonna hurt
Speaker:me. I need to trust that you're gonna be kind. I need to
Speaker:trust that you have my back. That's why trust
Speaker:is this secondary requirement in the hierarchies. We start
Speaker:with self love, we go to trust, and then we go to honesty. Right?
Speaker:Because I need to be honest with myself
Speaker:about my pain or about my patterns that are there
Speaker:to either prevent pain or to cope with pain.
Speaker:I won't be honest and look at those if I don't feel loved
Speaker:and safe. So that's why we have to feel loved. We have to feel safe.
Speaker:Then we have to be honest. Now this episode is all about listening.
Speaker:The conversation that you're having with yourself is
Speaker:really this kind of core self, the the one that's enough, the
Speaker:one that is loved, the one that that is beautiful, the one that is
Speaker:perfect, having a conversation with the parts of you
Speaker:that show up in a way that you don't love anymore. Like, you love
Speaker:yourself, but you don't like the way that you're acting, And you don't like
Speaker:the way you're feeling, and you don't like your thinking. You're stinking
Speaker:thinking. So you want to find a way to
Speaker:heal and come together and change some
Speaker:of these negative patterns. So we look
Speaker:like I'm honest with myself, and then I listen to myself all with
Speaker:that foundation of I trust myself. I'm safe with myself. I
Speaker:love myself. So these key pieces
Speaker:of love, trust, honesty, and
Speaker:listening all go together, and I've broken them down in
Speaker:these episodes. So today is all about listening.
Speaker:Now remember the series, the goal of this series is that I want
Speaker:you to learn to be kinder to yourself. Wouldn't that be nice? Just
Speaker:that. It's like, why do we have to be so mean? Especially as women,
Speaker:we're constantly our inner critic, our inner monologue
Speaker:is on fire. It's just kind of like this, you know, this
Speaker:buzz of negativity that goes on inside of us. And it's just such a
Speaker:waste, a waste of your beauty, a waste of your productivity, a waste of
Speaker:your contribution, a waste of your own peace. I don't care how you act towards
Speaker:others or, like, what you'd show up in the world. I want you to feel
Speaker:better inside. So we're gonna be kinder to ourselves,
Speaker:making friends with our thoughts and feelings. So getting to know
Speaker:yourself, becoming a good friend to yourself, and
Speaker:being curious about your thoughts and your feelings.
Speaker:Noticing your patterns and your strategies that don't work for you anymore.
Speaker:So if you have a behavior, like, not yelling at your kids
Speaker:anymore or whatever the behavior is that you don't wanna
Speaker:do anymore, like, I don't wanna, get angry or
Speaker:feel insecure and then start to criticize my husband. Right? That's
Speaker:a pattern that I have, and I don't wanna do that
Speaker:anymore. Right? So I'm, like, gonna take a look at that pattern
Speaker:and decide I don't wanna criticize him anymore. So I need to get curious. I
Speaker:need to, you know, be honest with myself. I'm doing it. And then I need
Speaker:to listen and figure out why am I doing that. And then I wanna
Speaker:make small changes. So these are our goals. Be kinder to yourself, make
Speaker:friends with your thoughts and feelings, notice your patterns and strategies
Speaker:that don't work for you anymore, and make small changes that
Speaker:influence those patterns. And that's what we're doing in this how to heal
Speaker:series is we're healing your relationship
Speaker:with yourself so that you can shift and change
Speaker:and become more whole. Right? Healing is really the
Speaker:process of something is wounded and it
Speaker:gets healed. Today, we're talking about radical
Speaker:listening. So the core sentence or the main mantra
Speaker:of this topic is I will listen to
Speaker:my needs and wants and see those as valid and
Speaker:important. I will listen to my intuition and
Speaker:trust my inner wisdom. That's what I'm hoping for
Speaker:you by listening to this episode that you will learn
Speaker:how to listen more carefully to yourself. Notice your
Speaker:needs. Notice your wants. Notice your powder patterns.
Speaker:Validate yourself. See your needs as important. Listen to
Speaker:yourself. Trust your intuition. Trust your inner wisdom. The
Speaker:goal of radical listening is really, like I said, to build a
Speaker:better relationship with yourself. By
Speaker:yourself, I mean your essential self, your core self, that
Speaker:thing I talked about in radical self love, the essential
Speaker:being inside of you. Martha Beck says, your true nature, the part
Speaker:of you that always remembers what it is meant to be and never
Speaker:stops trying to be what it is, no matter what happens to
Speaker:her. Your birthright is to feel peace and
Speaker:joy and gratitude and love. And in your core, you
Speaker:carry all of that. We wanna tap into that
Speaker:and let help you live more and more deeply
Speaker:in your inner wisdom, inner inner self.
Speaker:So the goal if the radical listening is to find your
Speaker:inner guidance to move away from the patterns
Speaker:that you've created to protect you from pain or
Speaker:sabotage you from getting what you want. Because we
Speaker:all have these patterns of behavior And
Speaker:looking at those patterns either of how we act, how we think, or how
Speaker:we feel, those are these patterns we have. So we need to,
Speaker:like, look at them and see, okay, are these
Speaker:are these patterns that I have? Are they coming from a way to
Speaker:avoid pain? Are they protecting me from pain
Speaker:or sabotage a moment because maybe we don't think we're worthy of
Speaker:feeling freedom and love and peace and joy and all of those things?
Speaker:I want you to move closer to that authentic self,
Speaker:that core self, the one that feels peace no matter what's
Speaker:happening. Because the closer you are to your essential self, the more
Speaker:content you will feel. So all we're doing in this
Speaker:episode is we're tapping in to
Speaker:you and learning about you
Speaker:from that loving place, from that safe place.
Speaker:And when you're loved and safe, you can be honest.
Speaker:So you're kinda having this conversation about your thoughts and
Speaker:feelings, and you're, like, talking to yourself. So you're being honest, you're
Speaker:revealing things, and then you're listening to
Speaker:what is revealed and asking really good questions and getting really
Speaker:curious because your goal is to get to know yourself,
Speaker:your core self. So that's what today really is, like, looking
Speaker:for patterns. Who are you
Speaker:listening to if you're in this conversation? Right? Your
Speaker:core self is listening to who? I
Speaker:love the work of Dick Schwartz who wrote the book no
Speaker:bad parts. He's the founder of Internal Family
Speaker:Systems. It's a funny name because you think it's
Speaker:about, like, family dynamics, like your parents and your siblings,
Speaker:but, actually, it's your family system within yourself.
Speaker:So he has these different ways that he describes the
Speaker:parts that are living within ourselves. The first one I wanna
Speaker:talk about is your inner child. You've heard this phrase before.
Speaker:Essentially, I wanna think about it in terms of childhood
Speaker:wounds, childhood patterns that got established
Speaker:that maybe were really, really important to you back when you
Speaker:were a kid, but maybe aren't as necessary now.
Speaker:So he says, like, when you were young, you experienced
Speaker:traumas or attachment injuries. You were like a child, so
Speaker:you didn't know how to protect yourself or what to do about it. And so
Speaker:you might have, you know, created patterns
Speaker:to protect yourself or to
Speaker:soothe yourself in childhood that you no longer
Speaker:need. An example of this in my life is that because my
Speaker:mom was clinically depressed and untreated,
Speaker:she did not take any medication. She wasn't even not
Speaker:diagnosed until I was 18 years old, but the
Speaker:depression kept her really, like, on the couch, not doing
Speaker:things. She also, I'm pretty sure, had ADHD,
Speaker:and so she really didn't have a lot of order. So, like, the dishes
Speaker:weren't done. The laundry wasn't done. You know, the school paperwork
Speaker:wasn't filled out. I I I she had this, like, basket
Speaker:where you could put things we were really poor. So things that were,
Speaker:like, torn or buttons that were off, you'd put them in the basket.
Speaker:And then, like, I think, conceptually, she would fix them and then give them back
Speaker:to us. But they never got fixed, and so I would just put my
Speaker:clothes in this little basket, and I would never see them again. Also, just
Speaker:she was irresponsible with money, with decisions, with time.
Speaker:There was a lot of times where I felt like there were no grown ups
Speaker:in the room. So I over overgrown up.
Speaker:I became uber responsible, uber organized,
Speaker:you know, overthinking, ruminating, planning,
Speaker:really trying to make sure that every I was dotted and
Speaker:every t was crossed. And I took that into
Speaker:my adult life and was, like, really tight with the
Speaker:schedule with the kids or when plans changed, and I felt very
Speaker:overwhelmed. I didn't know how to pivot. I didn't know how to feel ease. I
Speaker:didn't know if something was going wrong. It
Speaker:really activated my nervous system because I was like, oh my god.
Speaker:There's no grown ups here, and no one's gonna help. And I would
Speaker:feel very overwhelmed and very triggered very easily.
Speaker:That hypervigilance, that dysregulated nervous
Speaker:system, those are patterns from childhood
Speaker:that I needed then because honestly, there was no one paying
Speaker:attention to me. But now I'm an adult and
Speaker:I get to pay attention to me. I have to
Speaker:teach that inner child that
Speaker:pattern of hypervigilance, overthinking,
Speaker:overplanning, overstructuring, and then getting easily dysregulated
Speaker:when things weren't going to my plan. I have to teach her, hey,
Speaker:girl. You're safe. I'm
Speaker:here. The grown ups are here. You are a grown up.
Speaker:You're okay. And that has become really, really
Speaker:important for me. So Dick Schwartz really talks about how
Speaker:sometimes we get put into a parentified place, and then we carry
Speaker:that intense burden of responsibility. So that's
Speaker:true for me. So for some people, you may have been conditioned in
Speaker:childhood that you're you don't matter. You your needs
Speaker:aren't important. Kit children are better seen than
Speaker:heard. Right? And you might not have felt listened to or
Speaker:validated, or you might been told that you were a problem, that you were dumb,
Speaker:that you were ugly, that you were mean, that you were selfish, that you were
Speaker:entitled. Now you have a negative self-concept. Maybe you
Speaker:were told you only only matters what you look like or how
Speaker:you perform, and you're disconnected from your authentic
Speaker:essential self because you think you have to perform or look a
Speaker:certain way in order to be loved and valued and accepted. So sometimes
Speaker:our need for attachment, our need for security
Speaker:isn't met as a child, so we don't feel safe. That was primarily
Speaker:true for me. And then sometimes our need for
Speaker:authenticity, our need to be validated for who we
Speaker:are at our core isn't acknowledged or given
Speaker:to us as children. And so our wounds are often based on
Speaker:attachment or authenticity. So you're looking for
Speaker:these patterns that maybe came
Speaker:from your childhood, and you're wanting to listen. Now I want
Speaker:you to think about what could have been my wounds as a child.
Speaker:Was I parentified? Was I taught that my needs weren't important?
Speaker:Was I taught that my value is based on how I looked or what I
Speaker:did or how I performed, my grades, how did I did in sports,
Speaker:how nice I was to everybody in the room. Right? Was I given a
Speaker:negative self-concept? Somewhere along the way, did I decide or did I hear
Speaker:enough times that I was dumb, ugly,
Speaker:mean, a problem, selfish, entitled, lazy,
Speaker:rude. What did you hear? What were the messages that you heard in
Speaker:childhood? Maybe you are acting from those messages. Maybe we need to look at
Speaker:those messages and examine them. Are you dumb? What's the
Speaker:evidence of that? What are you basing that thought and that
Speaker:belief system on today? And we wanna examine it. So we kinda have
Speaker:to look at it. We have to listen to the answers. So you're
Speaker:listening for your inner child. I also think sometimes it's not wounds from
Speaker:childhood. Sometimes our pain is wounds from culture. It could be
Speaker:wounds wounds from religion. It could be wounds from materialism and
Speaker:consumerism in our society. It could be from racism. It could be
Speaker:from it could be from a variety of social
Speaker:problems that exist that make it hard for us to feel
Speaker:safe and feel free and feel loved. And when we
Speaker:then look at our patterns, we can see that we have
Speaker:protectors, parts that prevent pain. Sometimes I
Speaker:call that the fix it energy. They keep us safe. They keep us
Speaker:stable. They avoid chaos unless chaos feels safe, and then
Speaker:they create chaos. We have these protectors that
Speaker:are really kind of in a fix it energy trying to, like, manage the
Speaker:narrative and manage the moment and perform. Then we also
Speaker:have the fuck it's, which are the parts of us that deal with the
Speaker:emergencies, and we give up all of those other strategies. And we're
Speaker:like, fuck it. I'm just gonna eat. Fuck it. I'm just gonna ignore my kids.
Speaker:Fuck it. I'm just gonna watch TV all day. Whatever. I'm not judging those
Speaker:behaviors, but I I'm saying that we have kind of this fix it
Speaker:energy sometimes, and then we have this fuck it energy sometimes. And you wanna just
Speaker:look at, like, wow. Am I in a hyper controlling, hyper productive
Speaker:way? Or am I in a chaotic,
Speaker:overwhelmed, give up, give in space?
Speaker:I don't know for you, but for me, I kind of vacillate. Usually, I stay
Speaker:in fix it energy. That's kind of the way my pain shows up. But
Speaker:there's times when I get so overwhelmed that I go into fuck
Speaker:it. And I'm just like, forget it. I don't even care anymore. And then
Speaker:I sabotage all of the work that I've done. And I think that
Speaker:comes back to, like, core woundedness of feeling unsafe and
Speaker:unlovable. A lot going on in this episode.
Speaker:So we're listening to our inner child. We're listening to our pain. We're listening to
Speaker:our essential self. So this is where it gets fun and yummy and good.
Speaker:You have a bunch of dreams and goals
Speaker:and wishes, and they need to be heard.
Speaker:Right? If you think about a seed that is planted,
Speaker:right, you already have a bunch of beautiful seeds that are
Speaker:inside your core self, things that wanna be expressed, things that wanna be
Speaker:shown, things that make you super happy, ways that you feel joy,
Speaker:ways that you feel purpose, ways that you feel love, ways you
Speaker:express love. You already have all that in you.
Speaker:And what we wanna start doing is listening to her and figuring
Speaker:out how she can feel more safe to
Speaker:express those parts of her. I remember one
Speaker:time a long time ago, actually, I was doing, like, goal
Speaker:work. This was when the kids were little. And I remember thinking my
Speaker:goal was to consider learning how to
Speaker:knit. I didn't wanna make a goal of learning how to
Speaker:knit because I wasn't sure if I would even like it. So I made
Speaker:a goal to figure out if I would like it because I didn't wanna put
Speaker:that fix it energy. Like, here's my goal and then and then go fuck it.
Speaker:I don't care. And I didn't wanna do that. I was like, I'm just gonna
Speaker:be curious. What do I like? So that's what we're trying to find is, like,
Speaker:your essential self has all these seeds inside of
Speaker:her, these dreams and these goals. Now sometimes seeds,
Speaker:if you think about a garden, a seed can get
Speaker:buried too deep and it doesn't receive
Speaker:any of the light that it needs to
Speaker:sprout and grow. And I know this is true because I
Speaker:tried to garden. I've dabbled in that. I've decided I don't like it,
Speaker:and I'm not gonna try anymore. So there's that. I do grow
Speaker:strawberries and blueberries, but they kind of berries do their own thing.
Speaker:Though I did, like, the whole garden box and tried all the things
Speaker:and just realized, like, it's too frustrating to me most pretty
Speaker:much. But in the process, I was sprouting seeds.
Speaker:And if you sprout a seed and you push it too far
Speaker:down, it won't actually shoot up through the
Speaker:soil because it needs the light to grow. And if
Speaker:it's too far down, it doesn't get the light. So sometimes our
Speaker:seeds of our essential self are buried. We're trying to listen
Speaker:to those and figure out how to get those
Speaker:to the light, bring them up a little bit closer to the surface so that
Speaker:we can cultivate them. Some of you already know your goals and dreams, and you
Speaker:just haven't put enough fertilizer, enough water. You
Speaker:haven't given enough sunshine. You've hidden it. And I wanna
Speaker:help you discover those goals and dreams and then find out how
Speaker:to actualize them. So we're listening to our
Speaker:inner child. We're listening to our pain. We're listening to our essential
Speaker:self. And sometimes we're listening to a future you.
Speaker:So I like to do this exercise a lot where I
Speaker:imagine myself in the future, five years from now,
Speaker:ten years from now, or one year from now, or on my fiftieth birthday.
Speaker:And I think about how do I wanna feel? What do I wanna be
Speaker:doing? What do I want my habits to look like? What patterns do I wanna
Speaker:have healed from? And I don't need to know how I get
Speaker:there. I just kinda wanna know what I want. What is
Speaker:it that I want in a perfect unicorn magic
Speaker:wand world? What would I create? So we're
Speaker:listening to our pain and we're listening
Speaker:to our future. So we're listening to our past self that
Speaker:got hurt and that has protection. And then we're listening to
Speaker:our future self and what she wants and who
Speaker:she's becoming, all in line with our
Speaker:core essential self. So that's who you're listening to. Why should you even
Speaker:do this? Right? It's because you can't get to know someone
Speaker:if you don't pay attention to them, listening to them, finding out what's going
Speaker:on. You're in a relationship with yourself, and it's can be a very
Speaker:beautiful relationship. It doesn't need to be a toxic relationship.
Speaker:I think that if you were in a relationship with someone
Speaker:who treated you like you treat you, you would probably break up
Speaker:with them. And some of you try to break up with yourself by
Speaker:avoiding your pain, not taking a look at it, hating
Speaker:yourself. Let's not do that anymore. Instead,
Speaker:let's be loving and kind and get to know ourselves and then
Speaker:grow into who we want to become. Okay.
Speaker:So how do we do it? How do you listen? The
Speaker:first is the just paying attention. It's going back to
Speaker:that honesty thing. It's like taking a look at
Speaker:yourself and noticing being aware.
Speaker:There's a lot of things in self help and in healing and
Speaker:in psychology that are all around awareness. It's like one of the
Speaker:benefits of meditation is you become aware of
Speaker:your thoughts and of your patterns. Right? Because you're in a
Speaker:trying to be still and be present in the moment, and then you notice
Speaker:your monkey mind, and it moves all around. Just pay attention, but
Speaker:you can't do it, like I said, if you don't love yourself and if you
Speaker:don't feel safe. What are you looking at? You're looking at stuff you don't
Speaker:like, maybe stuff you don't like the way you're being treated, the way your kids
Speaker:are behaving, the way that you your spouse is behaving, the
Speaker:way your boss is behaving, the way your community treats you,
Speaker:or the way that you're acting, the way that you're thinking, the way that you're
Speaker:feeling. Just noticing if something doesn't feel good or
Speaker:right to you, we don't need to figure it
Speaker:all out, but we need to get curious about it. So you're paying attention
Speaker:to yourself. You're like, that didn't feel good. I'm gonna think about
Speaker:that. I'm gonna explore that a little bit. So we're noticing what we don't like.
Speaker:We're noticing our pain, and then we're noticing what we do like.
Speaker:We're noticing our delight. We're noticing what we
Speaker:love paying attention. When do you feel joy? When do you
Speaker:feeling of lightness inside of yourself? When do you feel just
Speaker:present and content? When do you
Speaker:feel happy? When do you feel purposeful? When do you
Speaker:feel like you have meaning? What are your favorite things to do?
Speaker:Think about taking yourself out on a third date. Like, you would
Speaker:wanna get to know, hey. What makes this person tick?
Speaker:That's what you're paying attention to, and you're being very curious.
Speaker:So we're paying attention. We're being curious, just truly, like, wanting to
Speaker:get to know yourself. And then looking for patterns,
Speaker:looking for the thoughts that hold you back. Look at the
Speaker:behaviors that are blocking you from getting what you want or helping you avoid
Speaker:pain. Looking at the feelings that you have
Speaker:in any given situation. Are you overwhelmed? Are you frustrated?
Speaker:Are you rageful? Are you hurt? Do you feel lonely? Do you
Speaker:feel sad? When you are looking at how
Speaker:you think and feel and act, you will start to notice those
Speaker:patterns and you can start to get curious about those patterns.
Speaker:So some patterns that you might be noticing, making promises
Speaker:to yourself and breaking them, feeling out of control,
Speaker:having extreme reactions like that mad mama
Speaker:syndrome, feeling disconnected or distracted, not
Speaker:feeling present, noticing that
Speaker:mean inner critic, that inner monologue, doing
Speaker:a lot of people pleasing, difficulty tuning into your own needs
Speaker:or not feeling entitled to take care of yourself, very difficult for
Speaker:moms. Having trouble expressing what you want, feeling
Speaker:overwhelmed and stressed and unable to cope with feelings,
Speaker:buffering behaviors, behaviors that avoid that
Speaker:pain. One of the ways that I'm exploring buffering right
Speaker:now is I've done a shopping ban, particularly for
Speaker:clothes, because I noticed that one of the ways that I protect
Speaker:myself or avoid pain is
Speaker:by buying things to put on my body,
Speaker:almost like a shield or to say I belong, to say I'm
Speaker:safe, to say I matter. And I want to explore
Speaker:not doing that, not buying those clothes, and finding out if
Speaker:I can find the feeling of belonging and safety and worthiness
Speaker:without adding anything extra. So buffering is
Speaker:when we do things to avoid pain or do things to
Speaker:get a feeling. It's not necessarily bad, but
Speaker:you wanna get curious. Do I need this pattern? Also notice that you
Speaker:have jealousy or insecurity in relationships. I think whenever I'm
Speaker:jealous of someone, instead of judging myself
Speaker:or making them wrong, like, oh, well, you know, she's a bitch anyways. I don't
Speaker:know. Thinking negative thoughts about that person. I get curious and
Speaker:I'm like, why do I want what I perceive them to
Speaker:have? What is the feeling that I think they have that I don't have?
Speaker:What is the essential need that I see in them that I
Speaker:wish I had? Then I look and I say, do I already have that? Or
Speaker:can I get that in another way? Jealousy and envy
Speaker:are interesting patterns because they help reveal something that
Speaker:you want. Not the thing, not the
Speaker:money or the funny husband or the
Speaker:beautiful house or the pretty hair. Not
Speaker:those things, but you are looking at what you
Speaker:make those things mean that that person has that you don't
Speaker:have. And you get curious about them. So looking at
Speaker:your jealousy and your insecurity, and that's a pattern.
Speaker:Asking for advice, some people crowdsource every decision. And if
Speaker:you're doing that, that means that you don't feel safe. You
Speaker:don't trust your wisdom. I'm not saying don't ask for advice. I just
Speaker:think, you know, sometimes you can see if it's a pattern where you're
Speaker:constantly asking many, many people for advice, or there's just one person you feel like
Speaker:you can't make a decision until you talk to them. That might be
Speaker:something to get curious about. All of these patterns
Speaker:are not necessarily wrong. We're not
Speaker:judging the pattern. We're being
Speaker:honest about it. We're being nice to ourselves. We're
Speaker:trusting ourselves if we're doing the pattern to protect
Speaker:or soothe or prevent pain.
Speaker:Great. Good job. I'm glad you found a pattern that works for you.
Speaker:Now we have to ask, is there another way you can get that need
Speaker:met? Is there a way we can heal that
Speaker:pain so that you don't need this pattern anymore?
Speaker:That's what we're doing. We're being really curious
Speaker:and from that foundation of love and honesty and trust.
Speaker:So this process that you're going through, right, is curious.
Speaker:And then you're practicing compassionate listening. So first,
Speaker:we're curious, just finding out what the heck is going on, being
Speaker:really honest, really curious, listening, what
Speaker:is going on? Then we practice compassionate
Speaker:listening. I love the concept of compassionate
Speaker:listening. It's listening with unconditional love,
Speaker:unconditional acceptance, and deep, profound
Speaker:curiosity. So when you are listening to
Speaker:yourself, we have that foundation of love, that foundation of
Speaker:trust. Now we're gonna get really curious. We're gonna
Speaker:ask really, really good questions.
Speaker:The process of listening, right, is we're being curious, we're being compassionate, we're
Speaker:listening really closely, and then we're asking really good
Speaker:questions. I find that it's really important for
Speaker:me to journal these questions and these answers
Speaker:to explore myself because I can't do that
Speaker:reflective listening and ask the next question unless I'm
Speaker:doing a journal entry for me. But I do
Speaker:find that I can do this sometimes with a very good
Speaker:listener who asks me really good questions.
Speaker:So my best friend, Tiffany, does this. I have some dear
Speaker:friends, my friend, Kristen Kristen Kristen, all the Kristins in my
Speaker:life. Kevin will do this sometimes. He's not
Speaker:great at asking good questions, but he's really good at
Speaker:letting me process my own questions with
Speaker:him. So I find that I have found a few people who
Speaker:let me do this. Some people and I think I used to do this. I
Speaker:did this in prayer. So I was like, it having a
Speaker:conversation with God and letting
Speaker:sort of the god within I didn't think of it that way. I thought of,
Speaker:like, literally god asking me these questions. And
Speaker:so if you have, like, a spiritual practice, you can do it with
Speaker:that. Like, ask Alex,
Speaker:imagining that the divine being that you
Speaker:worship or that you follow is asking you
Speaker:these questions, if that makes sense. So what
Speaker:are these good questions? K? First,
Speaker:I like to just start with a circumstance. Like, what happened? What are you bothered
Speaker:by? Like, I buy a lot of clothes or I really hate gardening
Speaker:or I really wish I could garden, or I'm so jealous that my friend
Speaker:has a job and I don't have one, or I really wish that I
Speaker:had more money, or, man, I really don't like that my
Speaker:kid is being so you know, call saying I hate you, or
Speaker:I really don't like that I took this thing out on my husband.
Speaker:Whatever the thing is that's going on, kinda narrating that.
Speaker:So we kinda start with, like, what the heck are you even talking about?
Speaker:And then what are my thoughts about it? What do I think about
Speaker:this circumstance? And doing, like, a thought dump
Speaker:where you just kind of free flow whatever you're thinking.
Speaker:For me, I broke my shopping ban this week,
Speaker:and I was like, okay. That's how that happened.
Speaker:Okay. Let's get curious about it. Why did I purchase that? What
Speaker:was I thinking? What happened? What was my reason for doing
Speaker:it? So I started doing the questions. What are my thoughts about it?
Speaker:Do I think it's wrong? Do I think it's right? How am I justifying it?
Speaker:What do I feel about it? What do I think about it?
Speaker:Then what am I making this mean? That's one of the best questions you
Speaker:can ask is what am I making this behavior mean?
Speaker:What am I making this circumstance mean? So if it's my kid
Speaker:saying I hate you, I'm thinking I'm a bad mom. I'm thinking that they're
Speaker:not a nice person. I'm thinking I've made a mistake and a mistake parenting
Speaker:them. I'm thinking that they are gonna become
Speaker:a psychopath. I'm thinking that whatever. Right? We can start
Speaker:to be honest about what we're making that mean. What do we
Speaker:make it mean about ourselves? What do we make it mean about them?
Speaker:What do we make it about the future? What do we make it mean about
Speaker:the past? Also going and saying, like, well, what are the
Speaker:facts? What is the facts about this thing? What happened?
Speaker:And then what is the story I'm telling about these facts? That's another
Speaker:way to figure out what am I making it mean. What's the story I'm
Speaker:telling? So you're trying to separate the thing
Speaker:that happened with your thoughts about it. That's that
Speaker:metacognition, that cognitive behavioral therapy
Speaker:is really this mindset work is recognizing
Speaker:your thoughts are separate from the circumstances.
Speaker:So we wanna be like, what are we thinking? What are we
Speaker:feeling? How do we act when we
Speaker:think that way? How do we act when we feel that
Speaker:way? What's the behavior that I
Speaker:do? Right? How do I treat myself? How do I treat my
Speaker:child? What do I do to avoid when I'm in this situation?
Speaker:How do I get out of this situation? What feeling am I
Speaker:chasing? What feeling am I avoiding? So you're just asking
Speaker:yourself, like, really, really good questions. One
Speaker:question I love is why now?
Speaker:What's happening? Why am I showing this behavior now?
Speaker:And looking at a bigger narrative? Oh, it's because I've been very
Speaker:lonely lately. Oh, it's because I stress that I'm
Speaker:traveling soon. It's, oh, because my kid went to
Speaker:kindergarten. Like, oh, it's because my husband lost his job or
Speaker:whatever the circumstances. Start to notice. Oh, maybe there's another
Speaker:pattern going on in my life that's making me feel insecure. That's making
Speaker:me feel unsafe. That's making me feel purposeless. That's making
Speaker:me feel like I don't belong. Sometimes our other circumstances
Speaker:in our life can be triggering the behavior. So getting
Speaker:really curious, like why now? What's happening? What's changed? What's coming
Speaker:up? So those are some questions to reflect
Speaker:on a situation and helping you find
Speaker:some ways to kind of explore
Speaker:what this could be. Why are you acting this way?
Speaker:Your best guess. That's it. You're just trying to figure out why am I acting
Speaker:this way. There's no right answer. Whatever your intuition,
Speaker:whatever your core self answers, that's probably the
Speaker:answer. And if it doesn't ring true, you could just be like, okay. What
Speaker:else could it be? It's this relationship with yourself.
Speaker:Another prompt I love is asking myself that magic
Speaker:wand question. Like, if I could magic wand this situation,
Speaker:what would I do? If I if there were no rules, there was no restrictions,
Speaker:I could solve this problem immediately. What would
Speaker:the solution be? And asking yourself, if I could magic wand
Speaker:this and I could fix it, what would the fix look like? That's a really
Speaker:interesting question because it kind of helps you tap into some of your wisdom and
Speaker:some of the action steps that might need to be taken. Another one that's
Speaker:kind of easier is, like, if I could change one thing about this, what would
Speaker:it be, and why would that make it better? The last question
Speaker:this is a newer question for me that I've been playing with
Speaker:in the last year or two is what if there's
Speaker:nothing wrong here? What if nothing is broken?
Speaker:What if I'm not broken? What if I'm
Speaker:not a bad person? What if I'm not a bad mom? What
Speaker:if I'm doing everything right? Instead of looking for problems
Speaker:and then finding solutions, I've been really challenging myself by
Speaker:the thought, hey. Nothing's wrong here. What
Speaker:if everything is going great? How would I
Speaker:think and feel and act if I believed that was
Speaker:true? Because then you might find your wisdom is like a very
Speaker:small tweak or no tweak. You could just live
Speaker:in the piece that you think you have to work so hard
Speaker:for. You might not have to work so hard to get there.
Speaker:It could just be available to you with one small
Speaker:shift of believing you already have it.
Speaker:The thing I'm jealous of, what if I already have it?
Speaker:The healing I'm craving, what if I already have it?
Speaker:It's an idea. It's something to try out. I've been exploring it
Speaker:and it's been very freeing and really fun to not be
Speaker:in so much like, I gotta heal from this and pain from this and just
Speaker:kinda like, what if I'm already good? What if it's already
Speaker:great? Could that be true? If it
Speaker:were true, what would I use for evidence to prove it? That's a very
Speaker:powerful question. So you can play with that one.
Speaker:The whole point is that you are listening to figure
Speaker:out how to have a better relationship with yourself.
Speaker:You are becoming the best friend
Speaker:that you've always longed for, the intimate partner
Speaker:that you've always dreamed about, the deep
Speaker:relationship with love and acceptance
Speaker:and safety, the perfect parent that you wish you
Speaker:would have had, all of those dreams
Speaker:for relationships, that's what you're creating
Speaker:within yourself. That's who you are becoming
Speaker:for you. And I promise that
Speaker:she is unstoppable. The essential
Speaker:self in you is completely capable
Speaker:of getting you all of the joy and peace and
Speaker:love and hope and gratitude and purpose and
Speaker:meaning and safety and everything
Speaker:that your heart desires, you already have everything in
Speaker:you to create that. All you have to do is discover it
Speaker:through radical listening. Alright,
Speaker:mama. I really appreciate you listening to this episode. I'd love to
Speaker:hear your feedback. Please either reach out to get a complimentary
Speaker:consultation with me. You can book right on my website,
Speaker:or you can DM me on Instagram. You can reply to an email. Just
Speaker:let me know your thoughts, your feelings, your reflections, what you're struggling
Speaker:with, what you love. Also, if you wanna do comments on Spotify
Speaker:or comments on anywhere you listen to your podcast, that's also
Speaker:super cool. I'll interact with you there too. So love
Speaker:you so much. I think you are incredible, and I will talk
Speaker:to you next week.