Truthful Tuesday (September 1, 2020)

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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.