Latest / The Everyday Awesome Project / 94: Your Year-End Reset: What to Release Before Setting New Goals

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94: Your Year-End Reset: What to Release Before Setting New Goals · The Everyday Awesome Project

0:26
Polly Mertens: Hey superstars, welcome back.
0:28
Polly Mertens: Paula here and Sam Pruitt.
0:30
Polly Mertens: What's up, beautiful humans?
0:32
Polly Mertens: Let's go, let's go.
0:33
Polly Mertens: This is gonna be a good one, my dear.
0:34
Polly Mertens: This is gonna be a good one.
0:35
Polly Mertens: I know it's a little early to talk about this, but it's never too early to talk about the content in this.
0:40
Samantha Pruitt: But is it too early?
0:42
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
0:42
Samantha Pruitt: No.
0:43
Samantha Pruitt: It's not because I made a decision yesterday that we'll talk about.
0:46
Samantha Pruitt: It's never too early.
0:47
Polly Mertens: Well, okay.
0:47
Polly Mertens: Reset.
0:48
Polly Mertens: Ba-boom.
0:49
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
0:49
Polly Mertens: So the the I'm so glad your vibrancy is coming back.
0:52
Polly Mertens: It's so good because our last one or two was like you were in some hurts.
0:59
Samantha Pruitt: But I'm coming out of it.
1:00
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
1:01
Polly Mertens: So you had had some um something's going on in your hip joint and you know, gut stuff all year.
1:06
Polly Mertens: So, so well, okay, let's just tell them.
1:08
Polly Mertens: So this is the year-end reset and rituals for aliveness, right?
1:13
Polly Mertens: Like, and we'll talk about aliveness versus this busyness and stuff like that.
1:17
Samantha Pruitt: But year-end reset and rituals.
1:20
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
1:20
Polly Mertens: Okay.
1:21
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
1:21
Polly Mertens: So, like, you know, and we'll go into a deep like where this came from and and how it was birthed and stuff.
1:28
Polly Mertens: But, you know, I just notice how many people, like you and I were talking before we went on air about like this uh, you know, words get there's these things called memes, right?
1:39
Polly Mertens: And we think of them as like little things, social media, whatever, but they're actually like there's science behind that, like little infections of the brain, right?
1:46
Polly Mertens: Like people say things and then they, you know, like go viral or whatever.
1:50
Polly Mertens: Well, it's literally like a little mini virus.
1:52
Polly Mertens: And ideas and concepts, I think, get into the nomenclature, get into the culture, get into the speak, right?
1:59
Polly Mertens: And as a society, and it conditions us, it programs us, it sets us up positively or negatively.
2:07
Polly Mertens: You know, if we're hopeful in the Kennedy years, like we're going to the moon kind of idea, right?
2:11
Polly Mertens: Or is it like fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, which is what large largely our programming and meeting.
2:17
Samantha Pruitt: The current state of all humanity globally is the primary uh emotion that is being expressed.
2:25
Polly Mertens: And then anger, but we are here to put a pause on all of that.
2:29
Samantha Pruitt: We're saying hail to the no, yo, reset reset.
2:33
Polly Mertens: No more of that.
2:34
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
2:34
Polly Mertens: So the word that I'm just gonna put in air quotes because we're gonna throw it into the trash after we say it, and that is busy.
2:40
Polly Mertens: All right, like busy, productive, whatever.
2:45
Polly Mertens: Like, and people throw that word at me, they're like, Oh, yeah, you must be busy.
2:48
Polly Mertens: I'm like, don't be throwing that on me like that, don't be throwing that on me like that.
2:52
Polly Mertens: No, I am not.
2:53
Polly Mertens: No, I I I refuse to like take on that word, even.
2:58
Polly Mertens: It's like, nope, that's what maybe how it looks to you, and that's in your nomenclature.
3:03
Samantha Pruitt: But because you're a GSD, dude, you're getting shit done.
3:06
Polly Mertens: Yeah, and that's true.
3:08
Polly Mertens: And busy is not really a a word of much meaning.
3:13
Polly Mertens: Like if you oh shoot, I should have looked it up.
3:15
Polly Mertens: Dang it, I didn't look it up, but I just know it's an empty word, right?
3:19
Polly Mertens: Like busy, busyness, you know, it's like, and I think also that word sends signals to our nervous system negatively, right?
3:28
Polly Mertens: And I think the the state that our nervous system is at when we're not effing it up is peace.
3:37
Samantha Pruitt: Should be.
3:38
Samantha Pruitt: Homeostasis, balance.
3:41
Polly Mertens: Exactly.
3:41
Polly Mertens: So words like busy thing, you know, these frenetic words, we're messing up our own nervous system with the words that we're choosing.
3:48
Polly Mertens: So this is about like, you know what, put a little pause in your cause and like slow the roll.
3:54
Polly Mertens: And really, um, we're gonna talk at the end about you know, this program coming up in December because it's so important for people to take a pause, take a moment, take like step the hell back from from the doing, right?
4:06
Polly Mertens: And be deliberate and be intentional.
4:09
Polly Mertens: So, you know, I'm seeing a lot of people being busy but not alive.
4:14
Polly Mertens: Like what they're up to is this frenetic, you know, just like more stuff, more doing, you know, more scrolling, more hours of like, what do you what do you think busy is?
4:27
Polly Mertens: You were telling me before.
4:28
Samantha Pruitt: Well, people in general, including I've totally done this, of course, um, have convinced themselves that that is a sign of success.
4:36
Samantha Pruitt: It's almost like a status symbol.
4:38
Samantha Pruitt: It shows my value and worth in the world.
4:41
Samantha Pruitt: If you see me, you know, doing stuff, whatever the doing of stuff actually is, then you're like, damn, check her out, right?
4:50
Samantha Pruitt: Like, so there's this like elevation of value, status, and all that.
4:55
Samantha Pruitt: And it's all smoke and mirrors and bullshit because most of the time we are just spending so much time on just rubbish.
5:03
Samantha Pruitt: Not anything that's making our life better, that's building our health, that is contributing to our community or to humanity.
5:11
Samantha Pruitt: You know, it's not really those things, it's generally just shenanigans of freaking, you know, copious amounts of emails and paperwork and whatever all things that we wrap ourselves into these days.
5:24
Samantha Pruitt: Consuming media, you know.
5:27
Samantha Pruitt: So we just are saying that this is an end-of-year program that you're going to be offering.
5:32
Samantha Pruitt: But the reality is this conversation should be had now and any day on the regular with people who are just in a state of like perpetual movement, action without true awareness and reflection about what is it am I doing?
5:52
Samantha Pruitt: Where is it that I'm going?
5:54
Samantha Pruitt: How does this even make me feel these choices, these actions, these feelings I'm experiencing through my experience?
6:01
Samantha Pruitt: Just that pausing for a moment is what we're asking them to do today.
6:06
Polly Mertens: It reminds me as you were saying that, what it was coming up for me was like, even as the day goes on, there's cycles through the day, right?
6:15
Polly Mertens: You know, there's there's the early morning, like slow rise, there's the heat of the day or the brightest part of the day, and then there's that softening as it goes into night, and then there's the rest and the darkness, right?
6:29
Polly Mertens: Like that's a cycle of life in nature, which we are a part of.
6:33
Polly Mertens: And then throughout the year, these cycles of longer days, shorter days, colder days, warmer days, you know, like we're a part of all of that, right?
6:42
Polly Mertens: And there's cycles, and I think people just think we've stuck in like noon, like we're just stuck at noon, like high, high, high, high, high, high, high energy.
6:53
Polly Mertens: It's like, oh no, no, no, no.
6:54
Polly Mertens: Like you're you're a part of nature, you have a cycle too.
6:59
Polly Mertens: And following that and tuning back into that, right?
7:02
Samantha Pruitt: Through well, listen, human evolution.
7:04
Samantha Pruitt: Okay, we wouldn't even exist if our ancestors did that, right?
7:11
Samantha Pruitt: If they didn't live by the light of the sun and the moon and the seasons and the cyclical nature of nature, that's literally how they evolved and functioned.
7:22
Samantha Pruitt: That's why we're here today.
7:24
Samantha Pruitt: Hallelujah.
7:24
Samantha Pruitt: They figured some shit out, right?
7:26
Samantha Pruitt: Lucky us, look at us being so lucky, right?
7:29
Samantha Pruitt: So that's how humans are supposed to operate.
7:32
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
7:32
Polly Mertens: And I and I'm evolution.
7:34
Polly Mertens: Yeah, and I think there's a dev devolution that can be happening too, you know, this over-emphasis on biohacking and age longevity and you know how much sleep when you go without, and you know, just like pushing the body to some limits.
7:49
Polly Mertens: And it's like, and I think each of us has our own known inner compass that really is what part of this program is about.
7:56
Polly Mertens: So the program, I'll just announce it here, is return to the light, return to the light 2025.
8:01
Polly Mertens: We're gonna do this each year, and it's you know, tuning back in because we get so focused on this outer world, on these outer conditions, these outer shenanigans, these outer messages that are everywhere.
8:15
Polly Mertens: And really the message we want to tune into is within, right?
8:18
Polly Mertens: And so that's what this um journey is gonna be about, and teaching people how to do that on the daily, right?
8:25
Polly Mertens: Like get back into your rhythm of your daily, you know, rise and shine and sleep and you know, the cycles and how to be deliberate about things.
8:35
Polly Mertens: So, but really it's about this intentional pause because I think there's a difference between living busy and living aliveness, right?
8:43
Polly Mertens: And I've really experienced, you know, my the Come Alive program, we just rounded out the first eight weeks and we want to continue.
8:49
Polly Mertens: So we're we're jumping into the next cycle of it, which is so fun.
8:53
Polly Mertens: And one of the things that I had in the last one, and we'll go into this a little bit, is um purging, talking to them about like releasing the old and and getting rid of things and um the breakthroughs they were having, just like like light, like they came onto the call, just like bubbly and like, oh my god, I got rid of all this crap, and I feel so much alive and my house feels bigger, and then you know, and it's like it's living with aliveness.
9:17
Polly Mertens: It's not more gathering more stuff into the home to you know consume.
9:22
Polly Mertens: It's actually like we feel more alive in our spaces, even when we consume less.
9:29
Samantha Pruitt: So, this is one of the things.
9:30
Samantha Pruitt: How long is this program?
9:31
Polly Mertens: Okay, well, I'll go into the end about like all the details, like each week and what we're going through.
9:35
Polly Mertens: But what I want to do is today is like a teaser of it.
9:37
Polly Mertens: Yeah, well, I want to teach people a couple of the things that we're gonna do in those nights so that they can get a sample and you know, do this for yourself.
9:45
Polly Mertens: You don't have to come into the the Return to the Light program, but you're invited to.
9:50
Polly Mertens: But I want to teach people some of these things that I so how this all started, and I you're like this as well.
9:55
Polly Mertens: I don't know all of your rituals and your little routines at the end of year, but you know, I've done workshops and retreats and gone on, you know, taken other people's courses as well.
10:06
Polly Mertens: And I've really seen the benefit in my life where, you know, businesses typically do this in the last quarter of the year.
10:13
Polly Mertens: You reflect on the year, you do projections, you know, it's a natural cycle in most, you know, large businesses, some small businesses that take that thoughtfulness.
10:23
Polly Mertens: It's like, okay, how did we do review the numbers, whatever, and look ahead.
10:28
Polly Mertens: And this is a little bit like that.
10:30
Polly Mertens: It's um, you know, the first night is really about you know, slowing down and getting present to what has this year been about.
10:40
Samantha Pruitt: You mean looking at what is?
10:42
Samantha Pruitt: No.
10:43
Polly Mertens: And was, and what is and what was.
10:45
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
10:45
Samantha Pruitt: Well, you're still in it, you know, you're reviewing the year that you're in.
10:49
Samantha Pruitt: And you know, with reviews, not everybody changes the calendar whenever they damn well please, like me.
10:54
Samantha Pruitt: People are in the calendar each year.
10:56
Samantha Pruitt: Done with this year.
10:58
Samantha Pruitt: Thank you very much.
10:59
Polly Mertens: Well, you know, it's funny you do that because you know, one of the things my nine months felt like 12.
11:02
Polly Mertens: That's why I was like, it was like 12.
11:04
Polly Mertens: Fast forwarding now.
11:05
Polly Mertens: Fast forwarding now.
11:08
Samantha Pruitt: Well, while they're in it looking at it because it's so crazy, you know.
11:12
Samantha Pruitt: Like I'm old school, I use a calendar book and different things, and um, so we can actually look at things.
11:19
Samantha Pruitt: And you how many of us can remember what the hell happened in the first, second, or third quarter?
11:25
Samantha Pruitt: By the time we get to the end of the year and we're in fourth quarter, and we're in holidays and insanity of all the whatever stuff, and we've worked ourselves into a frenzy and we're usually exhausted and stressed out by them.
11:38
Samantha Pruitt: It's hard to take pause and reflect.
11:43
Samantha Pruitt: Generally, people ramp up and get busier and distract themselves with more things, like shopping for things they don't need and spending copious amounts of money and time on holiday parties and consumption and stuff like that.
11:54
Samantha Pruitt: So we actually generally pendulum swing ourselves way into the abyss.
11:59
Samantha Pruitt: What you're suggesting, and what I believe in too, is that there's a quieting, a calming, a settling down for real intra personal reflection, like going deep into the human called you and the life experience that I just had.
12:19
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
12:19
Polly Mertens: You know, and I think there's different levels that as you were speaking about this, I was like, you know, you can do this very simply, right?
12:26
Polly Mertens: Like the the work that I do, you know, in the past years, some of mine looks like literally like two days, you know, two days in early December.
12:35
Samantha Pruitt: I peel away and you do an intensive, okay?
12:38
Samantha Pruitt: That's not a little, you're hilarious.
12:40
Samantha Pruitt: You literally go for 48 hours, I'm doing this thing, and you go all in.
12:45
Samantha Pruitt: But it's so cool that you carve that out, you make that a sacred space in time, yeah, with no outside engagement, right?
12:54
Polly Mertens: As much as possible.
12:55
Polly Mertens: Yeah, as much as possible.
12:56
Polly Mertens: I mean, definitely you can do it as silent as you want, right?
13:00
Polly Mertens: Um, and it it takes on different flavors, you know, like um sometimes it'll be like down in Santa Barbara, which is one of my favorite places where it could be sunny and nice.
13:09
Polly Mertens: So I'll go on walks and be outside a lot.
13:11
Polly Mertens: Sometimes, you know, I've been in places where it's wet and rainy, and I just want to cuddle up with a blanket and you know, read a good book by the, you know, whatever.
13:20
Polly Mertens: And it's you know, it's an honoring.
13:24
Samantha Pruitt: It's an honoring.
13:25
Samantha Pruitt: That's a perfect word.
13:26
Samantha Pruitt: Perfect word for it.
13:27
Polly Mertens: And that's really what I want people to get most out of this is busy isn't an honoring to our soul, right?
13:35
Polly Mertens: It's it's a missing, you know, it's it's not honoring the soul that's in this human body and what it most wants.
13:44
Polly Mertens: And um it doesn't want busy.
13:47
Polly Mertens: I mean, all of us know this.
13:48
Polly Mertens: I mean, I'm saying this as if this is like well, we can get busy honoring.
13:52
Samantha Pruitt: It's a verb.
13:54
Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah.
13:54
Polly Mertens: Use use, I guess, direct the busy towards, you know, self is what I would say.
14:00
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
14:01
Polly Mertens: So these days I would do, you know, and it would just look like a lot of pause, like not very scripted, not a lot of doing, very little doing, more being, being with, right?
14:14
Polly Mertens: Um, so being with the year, being with myself, being with just little rituals, whether it was I'm honoring time to rest, right?
14:23
Polly Mertens: Like, I know that seems like, oh, we'll just take a nap, right?
14:26
Polly Mertens: But it's for lives that often we have, you know, a different heartbeat out in the daily life.
14:32
Polly Mertens: Sometimes rest is what our body is calling for and our soul is calling for.
14:36
Polly Mertens: And silence and stillness, not a lot of output, not a lot of input, very little of that actually.
14:43
Polly Mertens: So, like I said, this can go as deep as people want, and then you can go, let's say, less deep, and you could just, like you said, like pick up your phone and look at your last year's photos and just reflect on what a beautiful year you've had.
15:00
Samantha Pruitt: It's crazy when I go back and look at photographs.
15:02
Samantha Pruitt: Literally, you're like, wow.
15:04
Samantha Pruitt: You know, lately I haven't been feeling like an athlete because the illness and then the injury, and then there's a lot of um family stress and distractions right now.
15:11
Samantha Pruitt: And so I was missing that part of myself.
15:14
Samantha Pruitt: I was actually in there looking for a different photo altogether to do something with.
15:18
Polly Mertens: And I was like, Hold the hell up.
15:21
Polly Mertens: Who is this person?
15:24
Polly Mertens: Hey, what the seriously, I was like, what?
15:31
Samantha Pruitt: Because you do forget, you know, and you forget definitely things you did throughout the year, but you kind of forget who you are sometimes, and you need to literally look at yourself, which is hilarious.
15:44
Polly Mertens: Oh, that's me.
15:45
Polly Mertens: I did that thing, I totally forgot.
15:47
Polly Mertens: And a lot of people, I think, you know, I'm yeah, I think you and I are a little bit more soloists, you know, we enjoy people and community and family and whatnot, but we also enjoy the the soloist, um, the solo trekker.
16:00
Polly Mertens: And so I think there's a lot of people that they would look and they would see family photos, they would see the families, friends, communities, you know, that rich, like, oh yeah, I remember going and having lunch with her, and oh yeah, I remember hanging out with them, and oh, I remember this time where the family did this, or or whatever it is, right?
16:16
Polly Mertens: It's that and sometimes just that simple honoring can be very filling the cup, right?
16:24
Polly Mertens: To remember what a beautiful life we are having, because sometimes it feels like it's on fast forward, and that's an actually a way to go, no, I wanna I want to notice these, you know, you're reflecting.
16:35
Polly Mertens: So you I hope, you know, one of the things that I've gotten into the habit of is when I take out, so not to be somber, but when my my beautiful kitty cat passed away a couple years ago, you know, and I knew she was sick, so I started making yeah, so I started making videos of her, and that's all that's left, you know, inside of me.
16:53
Polly Mertens: And so now I have two other kitty cats, and as I make videos of them, I'm like looking at it with a video, and I'm really being present in that moment at the same time.
17:06
Polly Mertens: Like, this is one of those moments, you know.
17:10
Polly Mertens: And I'm just and it's like we we allow things to go by so fast without being present in it.
17:18
Polly Mertens: Oh, let me get out of the camera, let me take a picture of the whatever.
17:20
Polly Mertens: And it's like, hold up, camera can be over here.
17:22
Polly Mertens: It's your moment, be with that human, be with that animal, be with that sky, be with that lake, whatever it is.
17:29
Polly Mertens: Be there in the moment.
17:31
Samantha Pruitt: To me, that's the best kind of storytelling, also, is when you can sit with somebody and share your story or listen to their story.
17:39
Samantha Pruitt: And I love doing that with old friends.
17:42
Samantha Pruitt: I have a couple of friends visiting right now, and we were like reflecting back on some of the cool, epic shit that we've done together, just doing amazing, remarkable things, you know, and now our bodies maybe are not doing that anymore, right?
17:56
Samantha Pruitt: So it's really like an awareness of wow, you know, one is a cancer survivor and has a lot of repercussions from that, from her physical health, right?
18:06
Samantha Pruitt: But it's like, hey, yeah, but remember that time we freaking crossed the Grand Canyon on our own feet and legs?
18:12
Samantha Pruitt: You, you did that.
18:13
Samantha Pruitt: It's like, oh yeah, shit, that was me, right?
18:16
Samantha Pruitt: Or sitting with my brother who's in cancer treatment, same thing.
18:19
Samantha Pruitt: I'm like, tell me about when you freaking climbed that mountain and you got stuck in the snowstorm.
18:24
Samantha Pruitt: I've heard this story before, but I want to hear it again.
18:26
Samantha Pruitt: I wanted him to revisit it again for himself.
18:29
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
18:30
Samantha Pruitt: Like, dude, you did that epic thing, and then you survived this crazy thing, and like, so what you're doing now is really hard, also.
18:38
Samantha Pruitt: But you're fucking strong, you're amazing, you're capable, you can do this, right?
18:44
Samantha Pruitt: So it's all of these things that we sometimes don't hit pause for and revisit what is called the reality of our life.
18:53
Samantha Pruitt: Our truth is what actually we have done and who we are in the world, our experiences and our relationships, and getting up to those things, and you know, so you know, aliveness, I would say, you know, the the the frantic, the busyness, the nervous system, just all of that.
19:14
Polly Mertens: Um I don't think that's aliveness.
19:16
Polly Mertens: I would think if you ask people who are on a bit of a hamster wheel or in that frenetic going, striving, kind of losing sight of what it's all about and what for, um, they're not really deeply tuned into like, why are we doing this and what's this all for?
19:33
Polly Mertens: And do I even need to do this?
19:35
Polly Mertens: Or what really matters to me, right?
19:37
Polly Mertens: And so I think you and I are here to remind people like, uh, uh, uh, oh, hold on, you might be a little off track, right?
19:44
Polly Mertens: Or that may be the path for you.
19:47
Polly Mertens: But are you tuned into why and what it's about and you know, like what's really matters on this journey that you're on, right?
19:54
Polly Mertens: Like maybe you you're a doctor, okay.
19:56
Polly Mertens: You're you you enjoy being a doctor, and like you know, sucking the marrow out of these days and this journey.
20:02
Polly Mertens: You know, I I heard this great line this weekend.
20:04
Polly Mertens: It was um, you know, you don't listen to a symphony to get to the end note.
20:08
Polly Mertens: You don't listen to a symphony to get to the end note.
20:11
Polly Mertens: That's not why you listen to a symphony.
20:14
Polly Mertens: Listen for the beauty that it makes you feel inside of these days in this life.
20:19
Polly Mertens: And so reminding us to have a liveness about getting about what we're up to.
20:25
Samantha Pruitt: So take us through some of it, ladies.
20:28
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, all right.
20:30
Polly Mertens: So I have here the letting go, right?
20:32
Polly Mertens: So this is one of the steps that we'll go through in the return to light.
20:36
Polly Mertens: You know, and some of this, so a lot of what we'll do on the evenings in Return to Light are um journaling and some prompting, some thoughtfulness, right?
20:44
Polly Mertens: And then during the week, in between each session, there'll be homework for them to do things.
20:49
Polly Mertens: And so um, as I took my ladies in the come alive work um, we were recently doing is like the cathartic, the um empowering, the releasing of physical things.
21:01
Polly Mertens: Like their homework is to release five things in their physical world, in their home, in their car, and you know, go through the dishes, go through the drawers, go through whatever, right?
21:10
Polly Mertens: Shed, you know, it could be go on the look on the walls, you know, the clothes in your closet, right?
21:15
Polly Mertens: Just this magical opportunity.
21:18
Polly Mertens: And bonus is to take something that has had sentimental value and let it go as like a bonus, right?
21:25
Polly Mertens: So sometimes we we store up the like for me, you know, I have a box from when my dad passed away.
21:31
Polly Mertens: I haven't looked at it in just about 10 years, you know, and about six months after he passed, whatever I put in there is in this box.
21:39
Polly Mertens: Ten freaking years it's been sitting and moving it around from house to house.
21:42
Polly Mertens: I was like, actually, you know, I think one of the things that I will probably keep because it's meaningful to me going forward, not because of my dad, but was he actually printed out I did this European trek.
21:58
Polly Mertens: I I traveled all over Europe for a few weeks.
22:01
Polly Mertens: Um I can't even remember what age I was, I was in my 20s, and I used to send him emails back in the early days, right?
22:07
Samantha Pruitt: Oh wow, yeah.
22:07
Polly Mertens: I'd write him these, I'd go into a little internet cafe and write him these letters.
22:13
Samantha Pruitt: Wow.
22:13
Samantha Pruitt: He had them.
22:14
Samantha Pruitt: Oh wow, that's amazing.
22:16
Samantha Pruitt: And he freaking printed them out.
22:18
Samantha Pruitt: He didn't just have them like in his email, he printed them out.
22:22
Polly Mertens: Yeah, because they would have been disappeared with the computer that we got rid of or whatever, but he printed them out.
22:26
Polly Mertens: And so I have a feeling there's a reason why, and whoo, good stuff.
22:32
Polly Mertens: So it will be cathartic to let go of things that other things that were in there.
22:37
Polly Mertens: I don't even remember what's in there, but you know, maybe it's time to look at those letters and from myself, you know, beautiful stuff.
22:46
Polly Mertens: So yeah, so letting go of five physical things, you know, like and one of the things I've been really present to, and you probably noticed this because you're great at like just shedding clothes.
22:56
Polly Mertens: You're always giving me like you're like you're like, stop.
23:00
Samantha Pruitt: I have a bag right now in my room.
23:02
Polly Mertens: Yeah, I know I do it so often.
23:04
Polly Mertens: It feels so good.
23:06
Polly Mertens: So good, right?
23:07
Polly Mertens: Is um I'm really present to the if something doesn't feel good, like like I'm noticing how clothes that have a certain texture or a tightness to them or how they sit or the color or the something, if it just doesn't make me feel good anymore, I'm like, I'm not, I just don't want to put this on anymore.
23:28
Polly Mertens: Like I'm so like I'm so noticing when I'm a no for stuff.
23:31
Polly Mertens: Whereas before I would have kept it out of like, oh, I spent money on this thing, gotta, you know, get your full use out of it.
23:37
Samantha Pruitt: Nope.
23:38
Polly Mertens: No, you don't.
23:39
Samantha Pruitt: No, you do not.
23:40
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, it's one of my favorite things to do.
23:42
Polly Mertens: So why do you yeah, why do you do the?
23:45
Samantha Pruitt: Um, I do it on a regular basis, a to have awareness for the amount of clutter and things I'm collecting.
23:50
Samantha Pruitt: I like a more simplified life when possible.
23:53
Samantha Pruitt: Doesn't mean I live as a minimalist, I don't at all.
23:55
Samantha Pruitt: But um, so there's that, like how much stuff do I really have and do I really need checks and balances?
24:02
Samantha Pruitt: And then totally like what you're saying, not so much like, you know, is this the right color for me or whatever, but like when I wear this, how does it feel on my body?
24:13
Samantha Pruitt: Exactly.
24:13
Samantha Pruitt: And if I'm putting stuff on because somebody else has an expectation about how I should look, or I put something on because I feel like I need to present a certain way, those are red flags for me that that's just I'm not interested in either of those things.
24:30
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
24:31
Samantha Pruitt: Like A, I'm not here to look good for other people, and B, if something doesn't make me feel good, irrelevant of the look of it, then it's just it's just not for me.
24:41
Polly Mertens: And it's amazing.
24:42
Polly Mertens: You I've seen and you've probably seen these shows on TV where somebody like the Queer Eye is one of my favorite Netflix shows.
24:50
Polly Mertens: And it's these gay guys who go into people's lives who are largely either getting up to something important in their life, they're running a nonprofit, they're, you know, helping people in their lives or their community, and they don't take care of themselves.
25:02
Polly Mertens: And then they remind them, like, hey, we might might want to, you know, take care of this other human over here.
25:06
Polly Mertens: You're called you.
25:07
Polly Mertens: And so they'll do like new hair and they'll, you know, spruce them up.
25:11
Polly Mertens: And then usually when they and they start doing the trying on new clothes, it's amazing how you know on Queer Eye, they'll like try on new clothes and they'll just you see them like light up, like, oh, that color, you know, looks good, feels good.
25:26
Polly Mertens: The outfit, you know, fits them.
25:28
Polly Mertens: They they feel good wearing it, and it's a big difference than hiding ourselves or wearing clothes that just, you know, like even I had a bra that I bought recently at um, and I was like, oh, this looks good, you know, like on the hanger or whatever, and I tried it on whatever.
25:42
Polly Mertens: And I wore it once, and the how hot it made me, I was like, I don't know what the hell this material is, you know, it just looked like you know, this is a jog bra, right?
25:51
Polly Mertens: And I was like, I don't know what this is, but I'm I'm not wearing this thing again, right?
25:55
Polly Mertens: Even though I just paid for it, I'm like, not wearing it again.
25:58
Samantha Pruitt: Nope.
25:59
Polly Mertens: Bye.
26:00
Polly Mertens: Totally, bye.
26:01
Polly Mertens: Yeah, totally.
26:02
Polly Mertens: So, and one of the gals in the group, she hired, so she was really feeling so she's got two businesses she's running, teams that are not high functioning, so she's like just overloaded with the team and the HR challenges and stuff like that.
26:18
Polly Mertens: Lots of debt going on and whatnot.
26:20
Polly Mertens: And so she, you know, has been neglecting her home.
26:24
Polly Mertens: And so I don't know exactly what it looks like, but the feeling I get when she shares about how overwhelming her walking into her own home was, you know, and somebody's like, oh, you can just hire somebody to like estate stale and get rid of furniture.
26:36
Polly Mertens: She's like, uh no, I don't think you understand how much, you know, it's like a little more severe, like bag.
26:41
Polly Mertens: I have a feeling it's like bags of you know, receipts or whatever, things just hadn't put away.
26:46
Polly Mertens: And so she hired two people to come over.
26:48
Polly Mertens: And she was a little bit of shame, you know, at first.
26:50
Polly Mertens: And she did it, and she was like, Holy hell, these two, you know, tornadoes came in, were absolutely loving, totally said, girl, we have seen worse.
27:02
Polly Mertens: This is no problem, right?
27:04
Polly Mertens: And they sent her on and they she said they put her on a little project in the bathroom to do something.
27:08
Polly Mertens: She goes, They could have told me to go out for a bike ride.
27:10
Polly Mertens: I wasn't doing shit, you know.
27:12
Polly Mertens: She's like, they just like put me in a corner so that they could get to work.
27:16
Polly Mertens: And she's like, in I don't know, four or five hours.
27:18
Polly Mertens: She goes, it was remarkable.
27:20
Polly Mertens: And her a lot, because she was planning to sell her house.
27:24
Polly Mertens: I was like, Well, you need to get, you know, start getting it cleaned up and let's get it ready.
27:27
Polly Mertens: And so she hired these ladies and she's like, I might stay here.
27:31
Polly Mertens: She's just like, that's so funny.
27:33
Polly Mertens: I might stay in my house, you know.
27:35
Polly Mertens: Like funny.
27:36
Samantha Pruitt: It was the seems like something you and I should do between your skill set and my skill set, also with like the kitchen and food and all that kind of stuff.
27:44
Polly Mertens: Oh, oh yeah, maybe that's what we're gonna do when we are returned now.
27:46
Polly Mertens: We'll be getting these out of here, you know.
27:48
Polly Mertens: Like we got over our friend Alan's over.
27:50
Polly Mertens: So Alan's going on this trip with me, Whitney.
27:53
Polly Mertens: Like, yeah, we'll be taking this off the covers and we'll be getting this out, you know, like let's go shopping.
27:57
Polly Mertens: No, not none of this, right?
27:59
Polly Mertens: So I love it.
28:00
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
28:01
Samantha Pruitt: Okay, so getting rid of stuff is part of the first like phase.
28:04
Polly Mertens: That's homework.
28:05
Polly Mertens: So, and you know, really the first phase is you know, dropping in and reflecting, right?
28:11
Polly Mertens: So part of it as as we're together that night is reflecting upon these moments, these memories.
28:18
Polly Mertens: I call it like like getting the gold, like like finding what was really beautiful about the year, because you want to take that with you, right?
28:26
Polly Mertens: Oftentimes our brain can be so focused on you know, the pain, like you've been in a lot of pain with the you know, things that you whatever.
28:34
Polly Mertens: But there were all lots of days that were gold or moments that were gold, right?
28:38
Polly Mertens: And so it's also getting those lessons because you know, like I just had a call this morning from a gal, and it she was like sharing with me all this shame that she has around this experience and what's you know, she's got this lawsuit, and I was like, oh man, you know, and I'm like, you're in it, dude.
28:53
Polly Mertens: You're freaking in it, and you're just starting it, you know.
28:55
Polly Mertens: So guess what, you know.
28:57
Polly Mertens: But like how much else is going right in her life, but noticing the times or the situations, the breakups, the heartbreaks, the bad juju that we have, sometimes it's letting go of people.
29:09
Polly Mertens: You know, we just need to be honest with ourselves, like this person is not in my future, right?
29:14
Polly Mertens: Exactly.
29:15
Polly Mertens: So it's a whole process of letting go that like reflecting on the past, releasing and leaving it in the past so we can make space for.
29:23
Polly Mertens: And that's what the physical part of it is about, too, is like I now have a clearing, I now have energy.
29:28
Polly Mertens: The universe abhors a vacuum.
29:30
Polly Mertens: There's this vacuum.
29:31
Polly Mertens: So what I want with deliberate intent can now come my way.
29:35
Polly Mertens: I can actually begin to attract it.
29:37
Samantha Pruitt: So make space, people.
29:39
Samantha Pruitt: Make space, space, for goodness sake.
29:42
Polly Mertens: Are you hearing us?
29:43
Polly Mertens: All right, and it's intentional.
29:45
Polly Mertens: It's like you've got to pause because you know, this woman with the house with the stuff, it's like that train would just keep going.
29:51
Polly Mertens: Like she would just be keep going into the future if she didn't get some girls on the train and like throw some shit off, like we're not taking that, you know, to the next stop.
29:58
Polly Mertens: Hello, right?
29:59
Polly Mertens: Right, exactly.
30:01
Polly Mertens: All right.
30:02
Polly Mertens: So it's you know, settling down enough to let go, release, get rid of it.
30:07
Polly Mertens: And then the second week is, you know, without letting in, you know, too many of the processes, it's going inward, right?
30:16
Polly Mertens: And you know, I'm really telling people like the return to.
30:19
Polly Mertens: Light is not a lot of doing.
30:20
Polly Mertens: There's not a lot of doing, right?
30:23
Polly Mertens: Reflecting, yes.
30:24
Polly Mertens: Quiet, yes, stillness, yes.
30:27
Polly Mertens: Because I think that what most wants to speak to us, or what really is trying to speak to us all the time, is pretty quiet.
30:36
Polly Mertens: You know, and like you and I find it out on the trails, and you know, if you meditate, you you can tap into it.
30:44
Polly Mertens: And people don't often give themselves that gift to go and be right.
30:50
Polly Mertens: So I'm calling this, you know, this next one is about sacred space.
30:54
Polly Mertens: You know, and that doesn't have to be a physical space.
30:57
Polly Mertens: I did a whole video on that recently about you know, rituals and sacred space and you know, your morning and stuff like that.
31:05
Polly Mertens: And I'll I'm happy to teach people about that, but you you don't need anything other than you and you, like time.
31:12
Polly Mertens: Like sacred space can be the space of time as well.
31:17
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
31:18
Polly Mertens: And so it's about big you know, becoming deliberate to carve out time.
31:22
Polly Mertens: You know, I said, you know, that so I actually my my year end is multiple weekends, right?
31:27
Polly Mertens: So the first weekend is what I described, you know, about the releasing and letting go.
31:31
Polly Mertens: So it's you know, I used to do two days of whole putting it all in the past and finding the gifts and lots of beautiful rituals and cleaning and stuff like that.
31:41
Polly Mertens: And then the next space is like really tapping in and allowing, like, you know, I'm really telling people, return to the light is not another goal-setting workshop.
31:50
Polly Mertens: It's not about setting, you know, setting yourself up with New Year's resolutions and things like that.
31:57
Samantha Pruitt: Right?
31:57
Samantha Pruitt: No, it's not more doing, it's not more doing, we're doing and more, you know, doing out of shame and guilt of what you didn't do, right?
32:05
Samantha Pruitt: All the people that carry, like, oh, well, I wanted to do those things last year or this last year, but I didn't get them done.
32:10
Samantha Pruitt: So I'm just gonna drag them into the next year.
32:12
Samantha Pruitt: No, no.
32:13
Samantha Pruitt: Okay, obviously, they didn't happen for a reason.
32:16
Samantha Pruitt: Okay.
32:16
Samantha Pruitt: They didn't happen for a reason.
32:18
Samantha Pruitt: So don't be carrying that shit with you.
32:21
Samantha Pruitt: And what you're saying is also it doesn't have to be about uh a bigger to-do list or more things you need to change or do better, although that like messaging around like more and better and different, etc.
32:37
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
32:37
Polly Mertens: If there's anything that I'm noticing, you know, I've been in this team management and leadership program for it's been about six months now, is the power of a hard no.
32:47
Polly Mertens: You know, the power of a no, right?
32:50
Polly Mertens: Because what we allow into our life, what we accept, what we promise to other people, um, you know, it has you know consequences.
33:00
Polly Mertens: It has us grow in doing things.
33:02
Samantha Pruitt: Requires a lot of energy.
33:04
Polly Mertens: A lot of energy.
33:04
Polly Mertens: And oftentimes are we aware of that like why we're doing that and what we're what that's about, or is it just like, you know, this exchange, like, oh, this person, you know, or I think or the energy cost.
33:16
Samantha Pruitt: Right?
33:17
Samantha Pruitt: Because you say, hey, I'm happy to do X, Y, whatever the thing is, you say yes to, right?
33:21
Samantha Pruitt: And you don't sit before you made that decision and go, exactly how much energy will that cost me?
33:27
Samantha Pruitt: Totally.
33:28
Samantha Pruitt: Away from other things that might be self-care or health care or mental care or whatever the things are that you do value, family time or whatever, away from, right?
33:36
Samantha Pruitt: So it's taking away from and it's pulling energy, not just time, but actual energy from you, which is your most precious resource to do shit you don't even want to do.
33:46
Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah.
33:47
Polly Mertens: So really it's creating that sacred space with yourself.
33:51
Polly Mertens: You know, if you haven't done it, you know, like that, maybe you watch this and then you go, I need a little sacred time.
33:56
Polly Mertens: I need a little sacred space.
33:58
Polly Mertens: And you maybe you get out your calendar, look at the things you committed to.
34:01
Polly Mertens: You're great at this.
34:02
Polly Mertens: You're like, I love a good Sharpie.
34:06
Samantha Pruitt: I love it.
34:07
Samantha Pruitt: Nope.
34:07
Samantha Pruitt: Oh, I thought I was doing no, I'm not doing that anymore.
34:10
Samantha Pruitt: No, exactly.
34:11
Samantha Pruitt: I do.
34:12
Samantha Pruitt: I do, I look ahead for the week and I'll look ahead for the month, and I'll be where the hell that I don't want to do that.
34:17
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
34:17
Samantha Pruitt: Maybe when I committed to that months ago, it seemed like that was a thing.
34:20
Samantha Pruitt: I now I could care less.
34:22
Samantha Pruitt: Or hey, I need to move that because I want to make space for something that now is more important to me.
34:27
Samantha Pruitt: I want that day to do X, Y, Z instead.
34:30
Polly Mertens: So you know, and sometimes we get into this place where we think we've committed to some someone or something in our outer environment, and like that's a say, you know, like that's some sort of sacred contract that can never be you're saying I'm laughing because that's so insane.
34:48
Samantha Pruitt: But I know that people do that, and they have this idea that that commitment, that yes they said to whomever, whatever, fill in the blanks, is more important than saying yes to themselves.
34:59
Samantha Pruitt: That is insane that somebody else, external from you and their needs, whatever the hell that looks like, is more important than you saying yes to you.
35:10
Samantha Pruitt: Unacceptable to me.
35:11
Samantha Pruitt: Sorry, that's a hell no.
35:13
Polly Mertens: So that's you know, the the grace that we can give ourselves when we create sacred space and time with ourselves to really own what we committed to and go, is that really serving me anymore?
35:27
Polly Mertens: Is that what I want to keep doing?
35:28
Polly Mertens: Is that what I'm up to now?
35:30
Polly Mertens: Is that in alignment with my values, in alignment with where I'm going?
35:33
Polly Mertens: And you know, because our god uh our life is constantly changing, right?
35:37
Polly Mertens: You know, there's some people's lives that look pretty similar, but often the human life is different month, you know, year after year, quarter after quarter.
35:44
Polly Mertens: So it's about assessing where you are and say, like with sacred space, am I honoring the commitment to myself first and foremost before I honor all these commitments to other people?
35:54
Polly Mertens: Or do I need to decommit to some things in my life that I need to recommit back to myself?
35:59
Polly Mertens: Right.
35:59
Polly Mertens: And so, you know, the one obvious thing is if your health isn't where you want it to be, you need to rethink how you've committed yourself.
36:09
Samantha Pruitt: All things stop until you recalibrate that.
36:12
Samantha Pruitt: Because unless you're interested in disease and pain and misery and ultimately dying before your time, then you stop now and you sort that out.
36:25
Polly Mertens: And I I I just see so many people putting all these other commitments before their own health commitment.
36:31
Polly Mertens: And it's like put the foundation on the house and then you can build from there, right?
36:36
Polly Mertens: So, yeah.
36:37
Polly Mertens: So, you know, some of the things that we'll get into in the last night is about creating sacred space on the daily, right?
36:43
Polly Mertens: Like, like I just find that when I introduced maybe 10 years ago, you know, the my morning process, my rituals, my routines on some of them on the weekends, some of them are every day.
36:57
Polly Mertens: Like I just found like my life was more my own, right?
37:00
Polly Mertens: You know, the energy we bring.
37:02
Polly Mertens: Yeah, the energy we bring to the day.
37:05
Polly Mertens: Because guess what?
37:06
Polly Mertens: If you, you know, had a busy day yesterday and you don't reset and then you know, set yourself up, guess what you're gonna take with you tomorrow and the next.
37:14
Polly Mertens: You're just gonna pick that, right?
37:16
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, it's like a freaking boulder.
37:18
Samantha Pruitt: It's gonna keep running down the hill until it runs right over you, literally.
37:21
Samantha Pruitt: Like you just can't get out of its way fast enough.
37:24
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
37:24
Polly Mertens: And so this isn't also like, you know, it's not, oh, I'll have sacred space and planning my social media time and I'll have it's like no, like time away from that.
37:34
Samantha Pruitt: Like get away from if someone thinks sacred space is their social media time, yeah.
37:39
Samantha Pruitt: Whoa, hey, uh, you need to call me immediately.
37:42
Samantha Pruitt: We need to have a conversation.
37:44
Samantha Pruitt: And you're very confused about a lot of things.
37:46
Polly Mertens: Well, and it's just distraction, like you said, you know, the busy, the distraction of I don't think people are busy at all.
37:52
Samantha Pruitt: I think people are highly distracted.
37:55
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
37:55
Polly Mertens: And so it's all about time for being, like getting, we give so much to the people in our life, the things that we're up to, the causes, the whatever.
38:05
Polly Mertens: Even taking care of ourself is something that we get up to.
38:08
Polly Mertens: And if we don't give it back to ourselves with some thoughtfulness and some daily practices to hold up, me first, then all of this, me and then all of this, that this gets depleted.
38:19
Polly Mertens: Like I've seen that in myself where it's like so much service, so much doing.
38:24
Polly Mertens: And I've seen I had an aura reading years ago, and she's like, You look like like a spaghetti sieve.
38:29
Polly Mertens: You know, you're just like all this energy is just leaking out, and the the tank was getting lower and lower, and I was getting more and more depleted.
38:35
Polly Mertens: And I was like, Oh, I get it.
38:37
Polly Mertens: Like I need to take care of me, well myself up, and so I can give from abundance, give from, you know, I'm over I'm oversourced, like I have some to give, right?
38:48
Polly Mertens: And that weight wanes, you know, through our life and seasons, right?
38:53
Samantha Pruitt: How do people make a decision what they're gonna do moving forward?
38:57
Samantha Pruitt: The planning element of this?
39:00
Samantha Pruitt: Is there a planning element?
39:02
Samantha Pruitt: So you've talked about eliminating and cleansing and letting go, and then assessing in the quiet, in the pause.
39:10
Samantha Pruitt: What about the people?
39:12
Samantha Pruitt: Which you know, I don't know anybody who doesn't want to do things differently because we're humans and we're always evolving and it's fun.
39:19
Samantha Pruitt: This life can be fun.
39:21
Samantha Pruitt: Let's do different things, right?
39:23
Samantha Pruitt: So when you're at that sort of junction where you say, okay, so I'd like to do things different next year, how do I decide what?
39:32
Polly Mertens: Well, that's when we're gonna come up with more offerings for the new year.
39:35
Polly Mertens: So stay tuned on that.
39:36
Polly Mertens: There's definitely things in the works around supporting people.
39:39
Polly Mertens: So the second night of the three-week series is tuning into your inner vision.
39:45
Polly Mertens: Because people, we lose sight, right?
39:48
Polly Mertens: We lose track because we we see what's in front of us and we just go for the next shiny object thing, right?
39:53
Polly Mertens: Or that decision we made 10 years ago out of necessity or scarcity or fear, we're just letting that drive our train.
40:00
Polly Mertens: And this is about putting a pause, putting a pin in things, slowing the hell down, and really getting clear on what you want most.
40:06
Polly Mertens: And it was amazing in the Come Alive, we did some of this work as a group, and they were shocked at the things that they were enlivened by.
40:15
Polly Mertens: Like they had no idea, like it wasn't even on their radar, you know.
40:18
Polly Mertens: But it does it have them lit up in the next six months, you know, some have goals by the end of the year, some it's next summer, you know.
40:24
Polly Mertens: It's like they realized what was most important to them in that moment, right?
40:29
Polly Mertens: And that's just something you can tap into over and over again.
40:32
Polly Mertens: If you create sacred space, you know, I mean, definitely, I'm not against, you know, quarterly goal setting or looking ahead and planning out things that you want to get up to, but it's coming about it differently.
40:43
Polly Mertens: It's coming about it from like a place from within, like where you tune out all of the responsibilities and have-to's, and you really tune into like, you know, because you and I have talked some and and this podcast and just offline about we're closer to our finish line than our starting line.
41:00
Polly Mertens: And with that, it's like, you know, you're gonna do the year to live program, and it's like, what if you lived as if your life you had a year to live?
41:10
Samantha Pruitt: What would it be?
41:12
Polly Mertens: What would you make?
41:13
Samantha Pruitt: Oh, that shit's about to go down.
41:14
Samantha Pruitt: Well, what you're speaking about um is with that quiet, with that peace, that reflection and process that you're facilitating also if people want to join the process in the group, is a really uh deeper insight into your own values if you're disconnected from them.
41:33
Samantha Pruitt: So, so getting clear on those, getting clear again on, you know, what's my existence here?
41:39
Samantha Pruitt: What's my contribution?
41:41
Samantha Pruitt: Who do I want to be in the universe?
41:44
Samantha Pruitt: You know, so it's all of those really deep, insightful conversations and a reconnection with the self before you go planning the next year full of activities or whatever.
41:55
Samantha Pruitt: I sort of reverse engineered this yesterday, and I pinged you a little bit about it because it was slightly ludicrous, but also fantastic.
42:05
Polly Mertens: Because that's how the freaking work.
42:07
Samantha Pruitt: If you're awake, shit happens because you see it.
42:10
Samantha Pruitt: You're like, oh my God.
42:11
Samantha Pruitt: So obviously, challenging year, health problems, yes, lots of family stuff, lots of stress, lots of insane borderline insanity, and then I got physically injured.
42:21
Samantha Pruitt: So, like my one outlet for exercise, my mental and emotional well-being was like ta, right?
42:27
Samantha Pruitt: And then there's a lot of pain associated with that.
42:29
Samantha Pruitt: So I was getting in a really funky place trying to find my way out of this paper bag, right?
42:36
Samantha Pruitt: This dark paper bag.
42:37
Samantha Pruitt: Um, and in that I have had more time for personal quiet work and journaling and writing and some different things.
42:45
Samantha Pruitt: All of that to be said is I did circle back to, okay, Samantha, you've been around you know, the planet here for a while.
42:57
Samantha Pruitt: A hot minute, okay.
42:58
Samantha Pruitt: So 56 plus years of living.
43:01
Samantha Pruitt: You've learned a few things about yourself.
43:03
Samantha Pruitt: So, what do you know to be true about what you value most?
43:07
Samantha Pruitt: What do you know to be true about what makes you feel good in this physical body, in this emotional body?
43:14
Samantha Pruitt: What do you know to be true about systems or processes or things that work for you for healing?
43:19
Samantha Pruitt: Right?
43:20
Samantha Pruitt: So I had to really kind of sit back down with myself and reverse engineer a little bit of like, okay, I know these things to be true, and so somehow I'm not doing any of them.
43:30
Samantha Pruitt: Well, that's kind of funny.
43:32
Samantha Pruitt: I mean, I'm trying to do, I'm pretending to do, right?
43:36
Samantha Pruitt: Like I'm scrambling around trying to solve to the problems, the many, many problems.
43:41
Samantha Pruitt: But that's totally different than me saying, okay, I know all of this to be true about myself, and I know that I need to take certain actions and be involved in my own life and well-being in a certain way.
43:52
Samantha Pruitt: So I'm fucking busy doing it.
43:54
Samantha Pruitt: And then literally, I had an email drop into my inbox from the universe.
43:59
Samantha Pruitt: It didn't come from actually the address, wasn't the universe, but there's no doubt the universe orchestrated that 1201 p.m.
44:08
Samantha Pruitt: email into my inbox.
44:10
Samantha Pruitt: And that's literally when your brain sort of blows, and you're like, what in the hell?
44:17
Samantha Pruitt: My soul lit up instantly.
44:22
Samantha Pruitt: My entire body lit up, of course, my brain and everything to the invitation that this um came into my inbox, right?
44:28
Samantha Pruitt: But it was how I immediately reacted to it of that's a hell to the yes, that's who I am, that's what I'm up to, that's what I'm gonna be doing.
44:37
Samantha Pruitt: Don't and then my whole mindset and physical way of being energy, even with I still have the stomach thing that's slowly resolving and the hip thing, even with all of that, all of a sudden I had life back in my body because my spirit was on fire for I'm doing that.
44:57
Samantha Pruitt: That's happening for me.
45:00
Polly Mertens: That is the essence of the come alive program, right?
45:02
Polly Mertens: That is the essence of all of this, is it's teaching people that what's a hell yes.
45:09
Polly Mertens: Like, like when your body leans in and says, I'm doing that, you know, or like, oh, I can do that.
45:13
Polly Mertens: Yep, all right, great, or following the path of highest excitement, right?
45:18
Polly Mertens: You like that, just like was definitely going there, you know.
45:22
Polly Mertens: And that's like me with Mount Whitney.
45:23
Polly Mertens: I was like, scared, but I want to do, you know, like we had talked about that.
45:27
Polly Mertens: So going to Mount Whitney is on my and you know, one of the things we said before we aired was like, what the hell am I doing?
45:34
Polly Mertens: Go, you know, taking a week going to Mount Whitney when I've got this product launching and this program and this da-da-da, you know, new new team members and stuff.
45:40
Polly Mertens: I was like, because it fucking lights me up.
45:43
Samantha Pruitt: Of course.
45:44
Samantha Pruitt: It's literally the fabric of our being.
45:47
Samantha Pruitt: I believe for myself, I can't do this other work in the world, be of service to anyone, frankly, if not if I am not on fire for myself in my life.
45:56
Samantha Pruitt: I I don't know how I'd be contributing to those people.
45:59
Samantha Pruitt: It would be half-assed at best.
46:00
Samantha Pruitt: And I wouldn't really being authentic in my energy and my wisdom and my support and compassion.
46:11
Samantha Pruitt: It just wouldn't be there.
46:12
Samantha Pruitt: It'd be half-hearted because I just don't have it for myself.
46:16
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
46:17
Samantha Pruitt: And that's not gonna work for me.
46:19
Polly Mertens: Yeah, and I think it's, you know, so those invitations, I love what you said, you know, you got this invitation to participate in this race, right?
46:26
Polly Mertens: And that's how, you know, that's often, I would say we're magnetizing what we most want, right?
46:32
Polly Mertens: And if we're blocking that, we're saying, like, oh, I can't have, can't have, that'll never happen.
46:37
Polly Mertens: Uh, you know, nothing works out for, you know, like if we've got this, you know, shield over what our heart most wants, like the the invitations don't come in, that we won't see them, we'll just delete that email before we even re-whatever, right?
46:49
Samantha Pruitt: Exactly.
46:50
Samantha Pruitt: That's exactly what will happen is we won't even consider, we won't breathe air into the possibility.
46:59
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, right.
47:00
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
47:01
Polly Mertens: And I really feel like, you know, we've talked about the Alive Alliance.
47:04
Polly Mertens: I was having a con this, so I haven't even told you this about this call I had yesterday with um, he's he's one of my coaches in the TMLP program, and we were sharing, and he started to describe the direction he's going in with his business and his partner next year.
47:19
Polly Mertens: And this wasn't like scripted or we never talked about.
47:21
Polly Mertens: He was just like, I'm like, so what are you what are you up to, you know, in the coming years, whatever.
47:25
Polly Mertens: And he started describing it, and I was like, wow, that like the vision sounded so much like the Alive Alliance when he started that.
47:32
Polly Mertens: I was like, you know, and this sounds like a collaboration.
47:35
Polly Mertens: I know.
47:36
Polly Mertens: I was just like, uh, so I went to bed last night going, I'm not quite sure what to do with this yet, but I think something just got handed to me on a platter, you know.
47:44
Polly Mertens: 100%.
47:44
Polly Mertens: He wants to work with me and have me start doing some things.
47:46
Polly Mertens: And I was like, yeah, we're we're a lot, you know, and I enjoy working with him.
47:51
Polly Mertens: And I was like, you know, I don't know where this is gonna go, but it's dude.
47:55
Polly Mertens: Yesterday too, I had a call with somebody.
47:58
Samantha Pruitt: I know we're totally off tangent, but I'm gonna present at a thing, and I have basically my 30-minute block, and this other person has a 30-minute block.
48:06
Samantha Pruitt: And I said, Well, who is she and what is she doing?
48:07
Samantha Pruitt: What is she talking about?
48:08
Samantha Pruitt: I have no idea.
48:09
Samantha Pruitt: Hey, I should call her.
48:10
Samantha Pruitt: Hey, what's up, lady?
48:11
Samantha Pruitt: Who are you?
48:11
Samantha Pruitt: Oh yeah, and it was like so.
48:15
Samantha Pruitt: We're not just, you know, isolating doing our things now.
48:18
Samantha Pruitt: We're gonna create an experience together.
48:20
Samantha Pruitt: This is a perfect stranger I've never met before, for these humans to have a completely different experience that would that would have never been generated if she and I didn't come together in this union like you're doing.
48:32
Samantha Pruitt: And it's really how are we doing these things?
48:36
Samantha Pruitt: Because we're open to it, and we have clarity that there's always something great about to freaking go down.
48:45
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
48:46
Samantha Pruitt: If you are keeping your eyes open, I swear to God, it's just around the corner.
48:51
Samantha Pruitt: It is.
48:51
Samantha Pruitt: I'm not bullshitting.
48:52
Samantha Pruitt: This is not the law of attraction.
48:53
Samantha Pruitt: I mean, this is just you having awareness about your own life and what is happening.
48:58
Polly Mertens: And you know, in the in the return to light, I'm calling it tuned in, tapped in, and turned on.
49:04
Polly Mertens: Like you're tuned, like you've got the the the energies in the socket or the you know, the out you're in the outlet.
49:10
Polly Mertens: You're like, okay, I'm tuned into my energy.
49:12
Polly Mertens: I've released the past, I'm like tapped into my energy, like what's possible, and I'm turned on for opportunities.
49:19
Polly Mertens: I'm turned on for like what do I most want to do instead of just this busyness of like doing, it's like, hey, send me more of this, please.
49:27
Polly Mertens: You know, like I'm I'm a yes for this, and then like bing, bing, bing, things, right?
49:31
Polly Mertens: And so it's like since I said no to these 10 things, I now have capacity.
49:35
Polly Mertens: Exactly.
49:36
Polly Mertens: And but it's a clear knowing, and then you know when something comes in, like you got lit up by I was like, I'm gonna call this person, and then you know, all this gets created.
49:44
Polly Mertens: So, and I had that call with that you know, coach yesterday, and I was like, this sounds amazing what he's I'm like totally want to be a part of it, you know.
49:51
Polly Mertens: So that tune in, turn it on that.
49:54
Polly Mertens: I love it, I love it.
49:55
Polly Mertens: But I do want to share some of what you know, I want to get into some of the specifics.
49:59
Polly Mertens: So if anybody's hearing things out of this that they want to be a part of Return to the Light, you know, Return to the Light is three weeks in December 2025.
50:08
Polly Mertens: It's the second, ninth, and 16th.
50:11
Polly Mertens: So it's perfectly timed after the Thanksgiving holiday that we honor and and and before the new year to have that space, right, to carve out and and be with you, right?
50:23
Polly Mertens: And us, like be in sacred women's circle with us.
50:26
Polly Mertens: So the first week is releasing, slowing down, getting grounded.
50:31
Polly Mertens: It's learning how to intentionally slow down, cutting out the noise of the external world, establishing foundational practices like grounding meditations.
50:39
Polly Mertens: Everybody's gonna take this on in their own way.
50:41
Polly Mertens: We're gonna give people ideas and inspiration, but to find your center and clearing your energy for love for last year, right?
50:47
Polly Mertens: So, like I find, you know, universal pours of vacuum, so it's like, let's give it one, right?
50:51
Polly Mertens: And then reflection and really calling in your inner wisdom for where you're most wanting to go.
50:57
Polly Mertens: So it's about diving into yourself, looking at the beliefs and baggage of last year that you've let go.
51:02
Polly Mertens: And it's like, what do I want to take on?
51:04
Polly Mertens: What what universe, what higher self, what what what is my work here?
51:08
Polly Mertens: What is what would light me up?
51:10
Polly Mertens: What would I be excited by?
51:11
Polly Mertens: And some of it's just gonna be coming out of this.
51:14
Polly Mertens: Some of it, you know what?
51:15
Polly Mertens: Everybody's in, we talked about the cycles of um nature, right?
51:20
Polly Mertens: And so while it may be winter, some people might be on a trajectory.
51:25
Polly Mertens: They just had an opportunity that just started, you know, like I'm definitely in a spring phase, you know, like I'm coming out of a winter and I'm going into a spring.
51:34
Polly Mertens: So next year is going to be levity and and and some people might be going into more rest, you know, some might be like retracting.
51:41
Polly Mertens: They've been on five years of pushing or outputting or whatever, and it's time to reset or rest.
51:46
Polly Mertens: So looking at whatever it is for you.
51:48
Polly Mertens: And so that will be helping you set yourself up for like what am I most wanting in next year?
51:53
Polly Mertens: Am I on my spring?
51:54
Polly Mertens: Am I going upward and I've got a trajectory?
51:57
Polly Mertens: I want to like output energy into the world, or is it about pulling back and what does that look like?
52:02
Polly Mertens: And the third evening is it's really tapping into activations so that you carry this energy that we create in these nights with you into your new year.
52:12
Polly Mertens: So creating your own sacred practice, your own sacred time, whatever that looks like.
52:16
Polly Mertens: You know, I'm teaching this to the women that come alive, it's like, you know, sometimes just five minutes is like busy moms, busy, you know, quote, busy.
52:25
Polly Mertens: Um, they have to start with something small.
52:28
Polly Mertens: And then I teach, you have to excavate outward to carve that time.
52:33
Polly Mertens: But what I find is like it's so sacred.
52:35
Polly Mertens: Like I'll I'll say no to a hell of a lot of things because that morning process, that morning sacred time with myself, tuning in, tapping into what matters most to me is so precious.
52:45
Polly Mertens: You know, it's like going drinking from a a well that just nourishes you and hydrates you.
52:51
Polly Mertens: And you've like, of course, I would be doing that, right?
52:54
Samantha Pruitt: So it's good to start small because people have their um preconceived stories and ideas about all of these kind of things.
53:00
Samantha Pruitt: So it's like when I started meditating in five minutes, it felt like a long time, right?
53:04
Samantha Pruitt: And it was a guided meditation, by the way.
53:06
Samantha Pruitt: So they talked to me the whole time for five minutes, and it still felt like forever.
53:10
Samantha Pruitt: You know, you're like looking around, and then now it's like 20 minutes of dead silence, and I'm like, that's over already.
53:18
Samantha Pruitt: 20 minutes.
53:20
Samantha Pruitt: Are you sure?
53:21
Samantha Pruitt: Check the clock yet, yeah, you know, but you don't know until you create a small space for the light to come in.
53:31
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, and of course, then the light is more powerful than the dark, so it will take over, and you will be shocked at how good it feels.
53:40
Polly Mertens: And I think, you know, when I used to hear before I ever, you know, I'd hear about the benefits of it.
53:46
Polly Mertens: I could even remember, gosh, when I was in my 20s, I lived in Berkeley, California.
53:49
Polly Mertens: Like, hello, like hippie capital of the world, a lot of a lot of meditating going on.
53:54
Polly Mertens: And I being like, check this out and being interested in.
53:58
Polly Mertens: I remember the very first time I even touched, tapped my toes into this, went up into some little room of like I don't even know what it was.
54:06
Polly Mertens: And there was all these chairs, and we were like in a uh it was a hippie fest.
54:11
Polly Mertens: I know it was.
54:12
Polly Mertens: Yeah, and they handed you a flower, and they handed you a flower.
54:14
Polly Mertens: Oh, of course they did, and like meditating on a flower, and that was like I couldn't get it.
54:19
Polly Mertens: I was like, I'm not sure.
54:21
Polly Mertens: But then I kept trying, you know, I kept going and doing other things, and then I found my way to a beautiful, like there was a what was it?
54:26
Polly Mertens: Uh like you know how you do those um adult school classes or whatever.
54:31
Polly Mertens: There was this adult school where I was living and there was guided visualization.
54:34
Polly Mertens: I was like, or meditation.
54:35
Polly Mertens: I was like, well, might as well give it to you.
54:37
Samantha Pruitt: You live in some hippie ass towns, don't you?
54:39
Polly Mertens: Dude, I lit up.
54:41
Polly Mertens: I was like, nothing's gonna keep me from going to this thing.
54:45
Polly Mertens: Like the amazing, like, because I have a wow wildly beautiful imagination.
54:50
Polly Mertens: As soon as I close my eyes, like I can see a lot.
54:54
Polly Mertens: Like, I see a lot.
54:55
Polly Mertens: Okay.
54:56
Polly Mertens: And so that just opened up that doorway for me to go in there.
54:59
Polly Mertens: I was like, well, I'm gonna hang out here more often, you know, and and it it goes through iterations, right?
55:05
Polly Mertens: And I think just staying curious about meditation, staying curious about a morning practice, staying curious about sacred time with yourself, whether you do it in circles, so like this, you know, I know we're gonna be on Zoom, so it's not virtually a circle, but we are gonna create the experience of being in a circle with women, is um it's so powerful.
55:23
Polly Mertens: And it's been done like thousands of years.
55:26
Samantha Pruitt: This is the beginning of yeah, this ain't something new, girl.
55:30
Polly Mertens: This ain't something new.
55:32
Polly Mertens: Like I didn't come up with this and be like, hey, look, ancestral wisdom.
55:35
Polly Mertens: Yeah, we're we're just we're bringing forth those practices that that really are made for women because we I think as we can tie in our energy, we're so powerful, so powerful.
55:46
Polly Mertens: So all right, so that's yeah, that's what that's what I wanted to share about.
55:50
Polly Mertens: So three nights, December 2nd, 9th, and 16th, um all online.
55:55
Polly Mertens: And then they'll be invited, you know, if you participate, then we're gonna do it again in um the first quarter of the year.
56:02
Polly Mertens: Bring that energy back and people can come back and just like re-experience coming back into that circle, you know, because we go into the world, and sometimes if you don't have your rituals down, you can get a little way laid and get the busyness back in, and it's like, let's get let's get let's come back together, get regrounded.
56:18
Polly Mertens: So look so looking forward to it.
56:20
Samantha Pruitt: So well, there'll be a link, right?
56:22
Samantha Pruitt: So I'll put a link on our Instagram profile.
56:26
Samantha Pruitt: So there'll be a link there, but where else can they find this?
56:29
Samantha Pruitt: On your website or yeah, yeah.
56:32
Polly Mertens: So um you can go to my website, it's there now.
56:34
Polly Mertens: So getbusythriving.com is the primary place under courses if you want to find it under that.
56:40
Polly Mertens: And then we'll put it in the show notes here and all over our socials.
56:43
Polly Mertens: So we're not gonna be quiet about it, you know.
56:46
Polly Mertens: Um, just you know, it's like putting the lantern out, shedding the light so that people that you know are finding their way home can find it.
56:52
Polly Mertens: So that's what it's about.
56:53
Polly Mertens: Yeah, so let's see.
56:55
Polly Mertens: Anything else?
56:56
Polly Mertens: I'm just looking at my notes here.
56:58
Polly Mertens: Yeah, just coming back.
57:00
Polly Mertens: So, what's our what's what would you say out of this is your one thing?
57:03
Polly Mertens: What was something that you got that you wanna have people pay attention to?
57:10
Samantha Pruitt: Well, my one thing is that you should do this on the regular basis.
57:15
Samantha Pruitt: So there is this ritual of this end of year moment that we all share collectively, and there's a lot of power in that too.
57:22
Samantha Pruitt: You know, the calendar is actually ending, and like so there's a lot of ritual around that.
57:27
Samantha Pruitt: But a lot of times we get pulled into that ritual of others, whether it's a religious practice because it's the end of the year or it's the holiday vibe with the end of the year, whatever, right?
57:39
Samantha Pruitt: So a lot of that kind of energy sometimes can be distracting from what you're the work you're really talking about and offering.
57:46
Samantha Pruitt: Right.
57:46
Samantha Pruitt: Right.
57:46
Samantha Pruitt: So I love that you're doing this in December before the holidays.
57:50
Samantha Pruitt: I think that's incredibly much more empowering.
57:53
Samantha Pruitt: Um, because after the holidays, we're all exhausted, by the way, and we're whatever.
57:57
Samantha Pruitt: So let's just clean this up before we close it, close the year.
58:01
Samantha Pruitt: And then just for myself, the one takeaway, which I just did yesterday, is I just hit reset on the year already.
58:06
Samantha Pruitt: I'm just not gonna wait around.
58:07
Samantha Pruitt: I don't, like I said, this particular year, it felt like 12 months, it was only nine months.
58:14
Samantha Pruitt: I'm done with it.
58:16
Samantha Pruitt: I've decided the calendar is not ruling my world, right?
58:22
Samantha Pruitt: Like it's I need to have some movement now, make some shifts now, do this work now.
58:27
Samantha Pruitt: So I would just say for people to be kind of aware of like when it's telling you to do it, you need to do it.
58:33
Samantha Pruitt: Your body, yeah, your brain, your emotions, your heart is telling you, do it.
58:38
Polly Mertens: Don't wait.
58:38
Polly Mertens: Totally, totally.
58:39
Polly Mertens: You yeah, that's why I wanted to share these ideas is like take this and do it tomorrow, you know, like get get after it, get into it, right?
58:47
Polly Mertens: Look at our other socials.
58:48
Polly Mertens: Um, you know, we've got lots of podcasts where we share all kinds of ideas on my YouTube channel, and you know, we're constantly helping people on their path.
58:57
Polly Mertens: So yeah, get up to it.
58:58
Polly Mertens: If you got through this part of the podcast and the video, then like get into it.
59:03
Polly Mertens: You know, don't wait until any anything, just start now.
59:07
Samantha Pruitt: Thanks for a reminder of that.
59:08
Samantha Pruitt: I'll put a link also on our Instagram profile of your YouTube channel.
59:12
Polly Mertens: Yeah, very fun.
59:13
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, we come play us, come play.
59:16
Polly Mertens: We're getting active over there.
59:17
Polly Mertens: Yeah, and we're gonna be creating more stuff.
59:18
Polly Mertens: And then you've got a uh we won't maybe we'll tease about it.
59:21
Polly Mertens: You've got a little gift that you're gonna be offering in your workbook coming out.
59:25
Samantha Pruitt: So that is true also.
59:27
Polly Mertens: Yeah, you'll be talking with are you talking with Kelly again, I think, on that.
59:30
Polly Mertens: Yeah.
59:31
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
59:31
Samantha Pruitt: So lots of yeah, there's just you and I are up to things, but we're up to things because we see a need.
59:37
Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
59:38
Samantha Pruitt: We feel a need energetically, and we see a need.
59:41
Samantha Pruitt: We talk to a lot of people, we experience life with them, and we want to be of service.
59:45
Samantha Pruitt: It's ultimately, you know, why we're coaches.
59:48
Samantha Pruitt: Because we sure the hell aren't doing it to get rich, because that ain't gonna be happening.
59:52
Polly Mertens: I mean, we're doing it because we love it and it's we want to be helpful, and do it for ourselves in our own lives and then pass it forward, you know, exactly like, yeah, yeah.
1:00:00
Polly Mertens: So, my one thing, I you know, and it's the two things that we talked about most, and that is like doing a releasing ceremony.
1:00:06
Polly Mertens: So, if it's take the advice of like get rid of five things in your house, maybe something sentimental, take that on.
1:00:11
Polly Mertens: Maybe it's a belief, a person, something, and then create some sacred space, some sacred time, some sacred space.
1:00:19
Polly Mertens: Can be a physical space, can be just a little time with yourself, and create your own little ritual, something that serves you and fills your cup back up, makes you remember to honor yourself.
1:00:28
Polly Mertens: And what's most important, you are in your equation.
1:00:31
Polly Mertens: So exactly.
1:00:33
Polly Mertens: All right, woman.
1:00:33
Polly Mertens: Lovely, lady.
1:00:34
Polly Mertens: Lovely.
1:00:35
Polly Mertens: Tell us what's our uh what do we want to remember before we close out?
1:00:38
Polly Mertens: What do we remind our humans?
1:00:40
Polly Mertens: How your life looks don't mean nothing.
1:00:43
Polly Mertens: That's how it feels.
1:00:44
Polly Mertens: And every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.