Freestyle Friday (September 4, 2020)

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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.