TRANSCRIPT
(This episode has been partially transcribed by computer and may contain errors. If quoting this podcast, please refer to the original audio.)
Each week a new theme. Each day 10 minutes to focus our mindset on what matters. I'm Sarah Parker, Wolf, and you're listening to the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. Thanks for joining me. 
 
This week's theme is “HOW IT IS” and today is Serenity Sunday when we focus on rest and rejuvenation. 
 
Happy Sunday everyone. And welcome back to the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. If you haven't been here with us before, I encourage you to go back and listen to the rest of the week's episodes. We are a daily podcast so you can tune in each and every day. If you don't want to ever miss an episode, make sure that you subscribe or follow us on your favorite podcast app now. Sunday is my favorite day of this podcast because it is all about rest and rejuvenation. So, let's get started. 
 
If I had to guess everyone, especially anyone out there who has a great capacity for empathy, the  empaths among us, all of us are feeling that weight of the world right now and we worry about health and unemployment and crime and brutality, justice and equal rights. We worry about schools and small businesses about world powers and voting rights and we worry about our kids, about our parents, about other people's kids and other people's parents. It is a lot. 
 
And you know, thanks Sarah for naming all of those things I need to worry about now, right? But really, in order for us to be able to take constructive action on issues that are personal or issues that are global, large or small, we need to make sure that we take time to rest. 
 
It does seem a bit strange if you're like me. I'm just not a very good “rester.” I am always busy. There is always something to do but, my body will tell me when I can't do it anymore when everything I do is at 50% or 20% or really even 75%. It's time to take a break. And it's also a bit strange that when so many of our normal summer activities are restricted in some way, right now, one would think that there would be plenty of time for rest, but really it is far from easy to rest in the midst of so much change and a whole lot of chaos. 
 
So again, we must choose. We must choose to listen to our bodies -- to listen to our minds and know when it's just time to stop. It's something that we require, just like food, just like air or just like exercise. We require rest to be able to be our best selves. We must choose to set aside time to rest our souls and to rejuvenate ourselves. So that's what Serenity Sunday is all about. 
 
So, today's intention is simple, although it's not really often all that easy. Wow, that's really a recurring theme this week. Today's intention is: I rest my mind and rejuvenate my soul.  
Perhaps you need some sleep, or maybe you just need some alone time. Or perhaps the way your personality works, it's just the opposite. You rest your brain by exercising and spending time with friends. You do what you need to do. You do what you love to do -- to be able to rest your brain from the anxiety and stress of this week. 
 
Let's take a moment now to take a deep breath. Hold it at the top. Exhale through your mouth. One more to really get that oxygen flowing. And then we just repeat to ourselves... 
 
I rest my mind and rejuvenate my soul. 
I rest my mind and rejuvenate my soul. 
I rest my mind and rejuvenate my soul. 
 
I hope taking even just those two minutes of time helps you feel more rested and rejuvenated and ready to have a wonderful Sunday. Thank you so much for sharing your time with me today. And I hope you come back each and every day for the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. 
 
And so that you don't miss even one episode. Please subscribe or follow us on your favorite podcast app. And if you would like to have a download of the week's intentions, please visit Sarahparkerwolf.com and sign up for my weekly email where you'll receive a link each week. And of course, you can visit us on Facebook as well. Just look up the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST and there we are. 
Alright, everybody. After we rest, it's time to get out there and live with intention, love like crazy and have a great and restful day. 
 ​

TRANSCRIPT
(The episode was partially transcribed by computer and may contain errors. If quoting this podcast, please refer to the original audio.)

Each week a new theme. Each day 10 minutes to focus our mindset on what matters. I'm Sarah Parker, Wolf, and you're listening to the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. Thanks for joining me. 
 
Our theme this week is “HOW IT IS” and today is Smart Saturday when we focus on practical matters. 
 
Hi all, happy weekend, thanks for joining me for Smart Saturday here at the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. I hope you got a chance to join us for the rest of the week if he didn't even go back and listen. We got into some pretty deep conversations about how it is and today is no different. But today we're going to look at something a little more practical, so let's get started. 
 
So Saturdays are usually my grocery shopping day and I haven't had to take my kids with me for quite some time now. My husband and I are both home during this pandemic, so we're lucky that, you know, we don't have to drag a whole bunch of people into the grocery store, but once upon a time when they were all little. They are very close together. My two youngest are twins and then their older sister is only 22 months older than they are and so you know I was dragging basically three babies through the grocery store and many tantrums and just sobbing and drama. I'm sure if you haven't experienced it, you've at least seen it. 
 
Needless to say, when I'm walking through the grocery store, whenever I see a parent barely holding on, you know the kids are crying or throwing stuff in the cart that shouldn't be there. I  like to give them a “no worries, I get it” kind of look or I like to smile at people and be friendly and say hi or good morning. 
 
So, last week when I was in the store, there was a guy who was totally not paying attention. And I said, excuse me and I smiled at him to say, you know, no biggie. Not a big deal that you left your car in the middle of the aisle. I just need to get by, you know, it wasn't angry. I wasn't upset. And then I thought to myself, well crap, he can't see my smile. He can't see half my face because I have a mask on and you know it upset me probably more than it should have. But nonetheless I thought he can't see me smile. People can't see me smile, they can't read my face and I realized I need to figure out how to smile with my eyes... (Does that sound weird?)... or just be really expressive with my eyes? Because with that thing over my face, normally people can read my facial expressions, but with half of it covered with a mask, I feel like I need to learn how to smile with my eyes. That's a really practical, weird thing to have to think about during this pandemic, but it really stuck with me all week. 
 
I want to encourage us today to think about how we're communicating through this pandemic to think about how we can say so much through our body language, through our eyes and how we can show and communicate concern and understanding and friendliness and heck, maybe even learned to smirk with our eyes. Does that work? I don't know. 
 
But that's our practical matter that I'm putting on the table this week as “how it is.” It's a weird world right now, but we need to learn to communicate with our eyes. 
 
And so today's intention as you go about your Saturday business is: I smile with my eyes. 
I mean kindness and friendliness is so deeply needed right now more than ever in my opinion. So just go with it. Come and join me in this and let's think about how we can smile with our eyes. So take a nice deep breath everybody. One more. Hold it at the top and exhale through your mouth. And remember our intention. 
 
I smile with my eyes. 
 
I smile with my eyes. 
 
I smile with my eyes. 
 
I smile with my eyes. 
 
Thank you for joining me today on this Smart Saturday. It's a little bit silly too, but I hope that you have a wonderful day smiling at people with your eyes. And if you're enjoying the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST, please make sure that you subscribe or follow us. And if you have a minute, please give us a review or a rating. We certainly are very grateful for your feedback. 
 
And please make sure that you visit Sarahparkerwolf.com and sign up for my weekly newsletter. I will send you a link each week to the week's intentions in a nice printer friendly format so that you can keep those with you. Put them on your fridge or in your wallet or in your bag wherever you can go back and look at them throughout the week. And you can also visit us on Facebook. If you look up FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST, there we are.  
So off we go to live with intention, love like crazy, smile with your eyes, and have a great day. 
 

TRANSCRIPT
(This episode has been partially transcribed by computer and may contain small errors. If quoting this podcast, please refer to the original audio.)

Each week, a new theme each day 10 minutes to focus our mindset on what matters. I'm Sarah Parker, Wolf, and you're listening to the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. Thanks for joining me. 
 
This week's theme is “HOW IT IS” and today is Freestyle Friday where we focus on living life to the fullest. 
 
Hey everyone, we made it to Freestyle Friday. Thanks for joining me on the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. If you didn't get a chance to listen to our other episodes this week, please go back and check them out. Or if you'd like just kind of an overview of what we do here at the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST, we have an introductory episode as well. And today on a Friday, yay, we're focused on living life to the fullest, so let's go. 
 
I would say that these days there is a heck of a lot to send us worriers into a tailspin. I mean, even those people more adept at staying in the moment -- like we did on our Motivation Monday, where we focused on living in the now and accepting things as they are -- even those people have got to be finding the current climate a little bit unsettling. But today I propose what might be a radical idea. (I don't know.) I say that today instead of stress, an anxiety, and gloom and doom, we choose joy. Yeah, that's my radical idea today, we choose joy. 
 
Did you know that scientific studies have shown that humans remember negative experiences and emotions way better than the positive ones? Is that not the biggest bummer you ever heard? But I mean you think about it. I have been in arguments with people or I have embarrassed myself and I can remember every single stinkin detail of that moment of my life. I can remember how I felt. I can remember how things smelled. I can remember who was looking at me. I mean every detail. But then, you know, I'm sure I had many wonderful days in between there that I don't remember a darn thing about. And to me, that's kind of sad. And really when you think about it, it's understandable. Our fight or flight takes hold, and if we have a bad experience, we want to remember how to stay away from it, right? That sort of makes sense. But on the other hand, wouldn't it be nice if we could just pull up a joyful memory just as easily as a bad one. Well, really, I think we can. 
 
I think we can make joy a visceral memory that we can remember anytime we want. Anytime that stress and anxiety is just pulling us down. And so today our challenge is this. We go out and we seek out joy and we make a memory. We don't just experience it in a general sense -- oh, I was happy for that moment!  When we feel that moment of joy, let's soak it in. Let's record in our memories how it sounds, how it looks, how it tastes, what it smells like, what it feels like and then pack that away and come back to it over and over again throughout the day, throughout the weekend. Just recall that memory so it's so cemented in our heads that the next time we feel completely overwhelmed by this world and negativity, we can choose joy, we can find it. We can bring it up any old time we want. Doesn't that sound nice? 
 
So our focused intention for today is simply: I choose to focus on joy. 
I choose to focus on joy.  

We want to just truly soak it in so that we can recall it anytime we need to lift our spirits and renew our faith in humanity. It's deep, right? But we can do that. We have that power! Isn't that exciting?  

So alright, let's commit that to memory. Let's take a deep breath in. Get that oxygen flowing. Get our minds all primed for keeping that memory locked in. Take a nice deep breath. Hold it. Let it out through your mouth. Taking another. And we say to ourselves:  I choose to focus on joy. Say it with a smile on your face. 
 
I choose to focus on joy. 
I choose to focus on joy. 
I choose to focus on joy. 

I thank you so much for giving me this joyful memory of spending time with you on a Freestyle Friday. I appreciate you tuning in and if you like what you're hearing on the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST, please subscribe or follow us. And if you have a minute, leave a rating or a review so that others can find us and join our community.  
Please also visit my website sarahparkerwolf.com where you can sign up for my weekly newsletter and each week I will send you a link to a printable version of all of our week’s intentions so that you can keep those with you and refer back to them when you need them. And of course, you can visit us on Facebook if you just look up FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST, there we are. Thank you again for joining me. 

​And now it's time to get out there live with intention, love like crazy and have a great day. 
 

TRANSCRIPT
(This episode was partially transcribed by computer and may contain small errors. If quoting this podcast, please refer to the original audio.)

​Each week a new theme. Each day 10 minutes to focus our mindset on what matters. I'm Sarah Parker, Wolf, and you're listening to the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. Thanks for joining me. 

This week's theme is how it is, and today is Thankful Thursday where we focus on gratitude. 

Thank you everyone for joining me for the first Thankful Thursday. I am certainly grateful that you are here and I hope you got a chance to listen to our other episodes this week. Motivation Monday and Truthful Tuesday and Well-being Wednesday. And if you didn't get a chance, you can always go back and have a listen. Or you can check out our introductory podcast that gives you an overview of what the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST is all about. Let's get started. 

I have a question for you. Today, who are the people who really have your back? Meaning who tells you the truth, not the people who kiss your butt, not the people who think you can do no wrong. But the people who care enough to tell you the truth to tell you how it is? Not in a bad, facetious way, but in a way that helps you grow as a person. If you're not sure, let me give you some examples.  

My husband, I'm very fortunate that I have a wonderful husband and he supports all of my crazy endeavors wholeheartedly, and he is indeed my best friend. But he is also the guy who's going to tell me if I have something unsightly in my nose. I can trust him to do that. I can trust him to tell me if you know my hair is all crazy or just all those things. I can trust him to tell me the truth.  

And I have another wonderful friend who I performed him plays with in my younger years. And this is... this is kind of the sign of people who tell it like it is. We had this pact that after auditions if one of us didn't get a part that we wanted, we would allow each other 24 hours to complain and moan and be upset that we didn't get what we wanted and then, once that 24 hours was over, we wouldn't let the other person go down that rabbit hole and we were going to tell each other that that was over and it's time to move on and to get our big girl pants on and get out there and do it again. So those are the people who love you so much that they can be honest with you. And those are the people that we're super thankful for today. 

So on this first Thankful Thursday, we're going to feel the gratitude with this intention: I am grateful for those people who keep it real. 
I am grateful for those people who keep it real. 

I want you to take a minute -- if you're driving, don't do this part, but if you're somewhere where you can close your eyes for a moment, please do so -- and picture that person or those people in your mind's eye and take a moment to imagine a nice warm light embracing them. 

That's your gratitude. That is your thankfulness, that they're around in your life, and that they can be honest with you, and you can trust them. And of course, maybe when we're done with this little meditation, you can also reach out by talking to them, or a note or an email, or a text or a phone call and tell them really how grateful you are for their presence in your life. 
So let's get started with our intention. Let's take a nice deep breath in. Hold it just for a second and then exhale through your mouth. Take a couple more deep breaths. Keep that lovely image of that wonderful friend in your head.  Take one more breath and think to yourself. 

I am grateful for those people who keep it real. 
I am grateful for those people who keep it real. 
I am grateful for those people who keep it real. 
I am grateful for those people who keep it real. 

Now, once we're done here, make sure that you expressed your gratitude to those wonderful people in your life. And I am going to express my gratitude to you for taking time to join me today for the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. If you are enjoying the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST, please take a minute to subscribe or follow us and write a review or rate us. That helps others find us amongst all the other podcasts out there. Please visit Sarahparkerwolf.com to sign up for my weekly newsletter and each week you'll receive a link where you can download the week's intentions. It's a nice printable that you can hang up on your fridge or put in your wallet. So, you have those intentions with you throughout the week or you can find us on Facebook just look up “FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST” and you'll find us there well. That's all we've got for today.  

​So, let's get out there live with intention, love like crazy and have a great day. 

TRANSCRIPT
(This episode was partially transcribed by computer and may contain small errors. If you quoting this podcast, please refer to the original audio.)

Each week a new theme. Each day 10 minutes to focus our mindset on what matters. I'm Sarah Parker, Wolf, and you're listening to the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. Thanks for joining me. 

The theme this week is HOW IT IS and today is Well-being Wednesday when we focus on how to take better care of ourselves. 

Hi all and thanks for joining me for the first Well-being Wednesday. I'm very excited because self-care is something I think we all could stand to have a little bit more of and so that's what our focus is on today and every Wednesday. If this is the first time that you're joining us, welcome and I encourage you to go back and listen to motivation Monday or truthful Tuesday. 
If you'd really just like an overview of what the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST is all about, we also have it in introductory episode that you can listen to. Alright, so it's time. Let's focus today on how to take better care of ourselves. Away way we go. 

So I am not what you might call it really outdoorsy person. I mean I don't hike difficult trails. I hate being too hot. I would never even consider rock climbing. But, I tell you, there is absolutely nothing that makes me feel better than the woods. If there is a tiny bit of water there, a stream or a lake, even it's even better. My family and I used to live outside of Nashville, and every once in a while we would take a long weekend in the Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg and the hikes there...even this little easy one, you know, we could take.  Maybe an hour we would be in there and I would come back feeling like a new person. I grew up in Wisconsin. Maybe that's where that comes from where we'd take our family vacations up North right where there's just woods and lake. And that's where I kind of find my happy place. Even in our own neighborhood, my kids will tell you I drive them crazy. They call me Miss Flora Fauna because I stop and take pictures of everything and tell them what kind of flowers are out there and take some nice close-up pictures. If there's a deer. Oh my gosh, you're going to hear about it and I'll probably have a picture of it on my phone. Anytime I'm outside and there are trees surrounding me. I just come back from that time outside feeling like my soul got a deep clean. 

Here's the crazy part, guys. Even if you just look at a picture of nature, your mind does amazing things for your body. Even looking at that picture, you can reduce your blood pressure, your heart rate, muscle tension, stress hormones and then just imagine if you actually go outside and you get some more oxygen to your brain. What an amazing way to take care of your body and your mind. 

So, this week, when stress or anxiety hits you because it's going to, I mean, this is a wild world we live in and half the time we're all stuck inside working. Or, you know, trying to stay out of each other’s way or you have a mask on. Whenever that stress or anxiety hits, step outside. Step into nature. Or you know, if you're really in the city. I'm in the city, but not in the city-city. Even if you're in the city, go stand where the Ficus plant is in your office, or you know, get yourself a nice little cactus to put on your desk and look at nature and find its calming essence. Find that beautiful thing that it can do to the human soul. It can give us peace. Take a stroll. Take a few moments of fresh air and if you're feeling really crazy, sit down and meditate. 

And here's a little something you can focus on while you're doing that meditation, we're going to renew our soul with this intention: I take comfort in nature. 

I take comfort in nature. It's that simple. 

So find your own little corner of a natural paradise...a lake, a park, a farm, a backyard garden. Again, the corner of your office that has the fake plant in it. Or use a picture of nature as your screensaver. It doesn't matter. It will all do the same thing. 
Okay, let's put ourselves there, in our natural, happy place, whether that's the forest or the beach, wherever you want to be and take a nice deep breath in. Hold it there at the top. And then breathe out through your mouth. And then we'll just say to ourselves... 
I take comfort in nature. 
I take comfort in nature. 
I take comfort in nature. 
I take comfort in nature. 
I take comfort in nature.  

Thanks for sharing your time with me today and if you're enjoying the FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST, if you could just take a minute to leave us a rating or review, we would certainly appreciate it. It gets the word out and gets other people listening as well so we can build our community. You can also join my weekly newsletter at sarahparkerwolf.com and I will send you a nice printable of the weeks intentions so that you can print that out and keep it where you can reference it over and over again during the week. Or you can look for us on Facebook if you look up FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST we’re there as well. And of course click below to subscribe or follow us and we hope to see you back here each and every day. 

​So now let's go out and live with intention, love like crazy and have a great day. 

TRANSCRIPT
​(This text was partially transcribed by computer and may contain small errors. If you wish to quote this episode, please refer to the original audio.)

Each week a new theme. Each day 10 minutes to focus our mindset on what matters. I'm Sarah Parker Wolf and you're listening to the focused intention podcast. Thanks for joining me. 

This week's theme is HOW IT IS and today is Truthful Tuesday. Which means today we tell it like it is. 

Thanks so much for joining me for our first Truthful Tuesday and hopefully you were here with us yesterday for Motivation Monday. If you weren't, I hope you go back and listen. Don't worry about it if it's out of order, there is no day of the week police coming to get you. You can listen at any time. It just kind of helps us move through our week a little bit. Or you can check out our introductory episode that gives you an overview of what to expect from THE FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST. Although you can just jump right in at any time. It's pretty self-explanatory. I know you'll do just fine. But thank you for joining us for Truthful Tuesday. Let's get started. 

So, I don't know about you, but there is plenty about this lovely year of 2020 that has made me uncomfortable. Things like wearing a mask is uncomfortable, right? I mean, we understand why we have to do it. It all makes sense. I will gladly put one on, but it is not comfortable. It is not good looking either, but it's definitely not comfortable. It's not comfortable physically and I really don't like it that I can express myself with my face. Either that's uncomfortable to me. I also think it's sort of uncomfortable to have to stand outside of a store before you can go in because you know capacity is limited. Again, I understand why I have to do it. I will gladly do it, but you know, when it's 95 degrees outside, not comfortable. By the way, I am not a summer person, you know. And then there's this whole working from home thing and the part about that that's made me uncomfortable is probably the five to 10 pounds that I've put on since I've been home. I used to walk around a park by my office and now I just kind of, you know, park it on the couch with my computer. And I have a whole fridge and a whole snack cabinet at my disposal. This is dangerous territory, but those pounds have certainly made me uncomfortable. 

And then we kind of move into the biggies.  I think social media is a big thing. That often makes me uncomfortable only because I really have to think about whether I want to engage in some of that bickering that goes on or not. Every opinion that I have, do I want to or do I feel like I need to put out on a social media channel? Although some people do and I don't have a problem with that either. But then there are those people who are super toxic and that can be uncomfortable too when you have to unfriend somebody. I mean, whoever thought when you're my age that you'd be talking about having to do that social media platform, but it can make us very uncomfortable when the people that we know, even the people that we love when we really butt heads about things that are important to us 

And then there's the discomfort of doing things like E learning. I mean, I love helping my kids. I was a teacher for 14 years. It's a great thing, but it's really hard when you have to work full time to an I cannot even fathom what is going on with the people who have to work outside of their house? Can't work from home and are still dealing with that. These are things that sometimes are on the verge of painful, not just uncomfortable.  

And then of course there are these really big things you know for someone like me. To think of the reality of white privilege, where even though my life is not perfect, even though I have to work hard for every cent that I have, there is a reality there that there are things I don't have to worry about because of the color of my skin and the reason that makes me uncomfortable is, I think about all that I haven't done to change that or the fact that I don't know how to be the best ally I can be to people of color. All of those things weigh on us. All of those things can make us uncomfortable.  So, no one likes to be uncomfortable, but that's life. That's “how it is.” Without discomfort, the human race would never progress. We would never learn new things we would never become better people and achieve what we are here to achieve. 

So, let's think about “what is discomfort?” How does it feel? I mean, really physically, how does it feel for me? My chest tightens up and my mind races and I really don't sleep, and I get frustrated really easily. And it might feel differently for you. It might all rest in your shoulders, it might make you cry. There're all different kinds of ways that people deal with discomfort. It may even manifest itself in making you ill, but when we know what discomfort and frustration an anxiety feels like physically inside of us and we acknowledge that that's what it is. That's when we can make a choice to move forward from it. To make a change. To make things better. And that's what relieves our discomfort when we can enact real change. 
So just like yesterday, today's focused intention is simple, but it is not easy. Our intention is this:  I recognize my discomfort and choose to work through it with positive action. 

And as you go about your day today, uncover that discomfort and choose to work through it. Don't ignore it. Choosing to find a constructive mindset -- an action plan -- is what will make it better. So, one more time, our intention is: I recognize my discomfort and choose to work through it with positive action. 

All right, here we go friends, let's take a deep breath in. Through the nose, hold it at the top of that breath. Out through your mouth. Deep breath in. Hold it just for a couple of seconds. And Exhale through your mouth. 

And then let's think of our intention. 
I recognize my discomfort and choose to work through it with positive action. 
I recognize my discomfort and choose to work through it with positive action. 
I recognize my discomfort and choose to work through it with positive action. 
I recognize my discomfort and choose to work through it with positive action. 

I thank you so much for sharing your time with me today and if you enjoy this podcast, please take a minute to subscribe or follow us. And if you have another extra minute, maybe leave your rating or a review. We certainly appreciate it and it brings more people into the podcast so that we can build a community here. And again, visit me at Sarahparkerwolf.com where you can sign up for my weekly newsletter and I will send you a lovely printable of the weeks intentions and you can also visit us on Facebook. Just look up FOCUSED INTENTION PODCAST and there we are. And that's our time.  

​Today let's go out and live with intention, love like crazy and have a great day. 
 

TRANSCRIPT
​(May contain slight errors. To quote any part of this podcast, please refer to the audio.)

Each week -- a new theme. Each day -- ten minutes to focus our mindset on what matters.  I’m Sarah Parker Wolf and you’re listening to the FOCUSED INTENTION Podcast. Thanks for joining me!
This week’s theme is HOW IT IS
And Today is Motivation Monday and that means we focus on getting ourselves ready for a great week ahead!

So, welcome to the first daily episode of the FOCUSED INTENTION podcast. I’m excited that you’re here with me and I hope that you got a chance to listen to our introductory episode just to give you an idea of what you can expect each day from the FOCUSED INTENTION podcast. If you didn’t, that’s okay too. I’m sure you’ll catch on quite quickly, it’s not that complicated. 
 
We do have a theme this week. It’s “How It Is” and today is Motivation Monday so hopefully we will leave here with a little bit of motivation to get ourselves focused and live with intention throughout the week. 
 
So, in my regular day job, I mostly write advertising copy and I will tell you, I have never used the word “unprecedented” more than I have in this dare I say, “obnoxious” year of 2020. It’s true enough that we keep delving into unsettling situation after unsettling situation and throughout all of this, I keep coming back to the same idea…that our lives are very rarely how we “think it should be” it’s just “how it is.” Now, that doesn’t mean we can’t take action to mold the future but we are all starting with the present and you can’t change the present. It is how it is. 
 
So, I think back to when I was younger and the magazines that we would read or the TV shows we would watch and how much it informed how we thought things should be. What we thought our house should look like, what we thought we should wear or how to style our hair or how old we should be when we get married or how many kids we should have and all of these preconceived notions were stuffed into our heads and we become disappointed when things don’t turn out the way we thought they would. I always think I need to dig a little deeper. Where did that come from? Where did I even get that idea? 
 
It really comes from thinking in too many ways. We focus on the past and all the things we could have or should have done different that we can’t change. Or we focus too far in the future on how we wish something could be instead of starting where we are at. My house sometimes has a big Nutella smear across the refrigerator and it certainly doesn’t look like anything I have seen in Good Housekeeping. I didn’t get married at 26.2 years old or have 2.3 children or whatever we’re supposed to have. Life looks different for everybody. 
 
We get to the point where we want to make a change of some kind. Whether that’s one of these big, giant changes that people are calling for throughout the United States and throughout the world or whether it’s just I want to lose five pounds. We have to be okay with where we are starting. So, that is kind of what this week is about. It’s just “how it is” and when we accept how it is, we can move forward. We can think of action steps to move us in the direction we want to go. But if we are in some la-la land, we’re hiding under the table, hiding our proverbial ostrich head in the sand, we can’t start to move forward because we can’t even figure out where we are starting from. 

​There is all kinds of time when we are focused on nostalgia and how things were. Why can’t things be the way they were? And then there is a whole bunch of time when we are focused on the future and it’ll change tomorrow – tomorrow will be different – or we’ll do things differently, or I wish it were this way. But today, how about you and I, how about we NOT focus on we wish things were or how they once were, or even how they may be in the future. Let’s focus on right now and how we are going to work with what is right in front of us. How we can take action based on where we are today to mold the future that we want to create.  We can make this “now,” we can make it miserable and think only about how things were or how we want things to be. Or we can choose to make the best of what we are experiencing right now. Let’s figure out where we are starting from. A good starting point for all of this wonderful life of focus and intention we are trying to create, but we are going to start with “how it is.”  
 
Today’s focus then is a simple thought,though it is a tall order.
 
Our intention is this:  I focus on the NOW – this moment. I focus on the NOW – this moment.
 
As you go about your day, in this yes, unprecedented time, when anxiety or stress or even blame starts to eat at you, come back to this intention. Let’s repeat it a few times so we don’t forget it.

Let’s take a deep breath in through the nose, out through the mouth. One more time. In through the nose, out through the mouth. 
 
I focus on the NOW – this moment.
I focus on the NOW – this moment
I focus on the NOW – this moment.
I focus on the NOW – this moment.
I focus on the NOW – this moment.
 
Thank you so much for spending ten minutes with me today. And I hope that if you enjoyed the episode, you’ll be back tomorrow and that you’ll subscribe or follow this podcast and you’re your friends as well. You can also go to Sarahparkerwolf.com and sign up for my weekly email. I will send you a nice printable of all the week’s intentions so that you can keep that close by when you want to go back and think about that. I also encourage you to visit us on Facebook. Just look up “Focused Intention Podcast” and there we are. And of course, if you like what you hear, come back tomorrow, rate us, review us so we can invite more people to share this great time with us. So now,  let’s go out and live with intention, love like crazy and have a great day!