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119. Empty the Cup · Your Enriched Self

• 0:00
  The idea of finishing what you started typically references something you started to put work
• 0:08
  into but you haven't yet completed, and it makes a lot of sense,
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  right, But I started thinking about that idea a little differently here lately.
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  I remember several years ago, I had a coach that talked to us about
• 0:22
  IG syndrome, and everybody kind of guessed what IG syndrome was. Some folks
• 0:31
  said something about Instagram, but it has nothing to do with Instagram. IG
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  syndrome is information gathering syndrome. And that was the first time I was introduced
• 0:42
  to that idea. But I recognized myself in that space of doing a lot
• 0:49
  of good work to only just get ideas that end up being on a shelf.
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  And this might be for you, but it's certainly for me. It's
• 1:00
  a reminder that there are so many great ideas that you've gathered over the years.
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  And as I was thinking about this whole idea of finishing what you started,
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  because we are at that time of year where you start to do some
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  reflection about what you've completed and what's still outstanding. And for me, it's
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  not so much the things I didn't finish, is the information that I found
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  the information that I was seeking, the knowledge that I was able to acquire,
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  but I didn't do anything with it. And so I'm challenging myself and
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  I'm challenging you to end this year finishing what you started. So if you
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  gather some new knowledge this year, if you acquired some new information, some
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  new insights, I want you to finish this year having applied that information,
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  that insight, and that knowledge. Hello, my friends from all across the
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  globe, and welcome to the Your Enriched Self podcast. I am your host,
• 2:24
  Mylene Noir. I am a mindset coach and your mindset advocate, and
• 2:29
  my job each and every week is to help facilitate conversations about topics that help
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  you enrich your life. So if you're new to this podcast, I want
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  to welcome you. I want to thank you for being here, and I
• 2:42
  know that you were brought here on purpose for a purpose, And if you
• 2:46
  are a repeat listener, I want to thank you from the bottom of my
• 2:49
  heart. Because of you, we have been rocking and rolling, and this
• 2:54
  is episode one hundred and nineteen, so I want to thank you for that
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  consistency, anticipation and being part of the conversation. Each and every week.
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  What we do here on this podcast is I create this safe space so that
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  we can talk about the things that you must do each and every day to
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  enrich your life from the inside and out. Now, before we get started
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  on this week's episode, if you know you know, one of the things
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  that I do each and every week with intention is I make a deposit in
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  the bank of you, and I do so by way of affirmations. Affirmations
• 3:34
  are a great way to start your day and to command your morning. And
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  this week's affirmation is today I make space for miracles. Today, I make
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  space for miracles. Today, I make space for miracles. Now, let's
• 3:57
  get ready for this week's episode of Your Enriched Self podcast. I'm not sure
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  if you are familiar with or heard of the term zen master. A zen
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  master is someone who has long time been studying and practicing Buddhist meditation and practices.
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  One of the practices that they talk about is emptying the cup. And
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  there's a story behind all of this. So imagine there is a zen master,
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  and there's this large group of students or professors that aspire to learn and
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  to be under the tutelage of this zen master. So in this classroom setting,
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  if you can imagine, here is a over zealous, excited professor that
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  has so many ideas and just continues to spill his ideas and talk about all
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  the things that he's ever had in his mind about the topic and all his
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  preconceived ideas, and he's just continuing to fill the room and a conversation with
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  just everything that he knows about the topic. Now, the zen master,
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  you know, think about a classroom instructor is very observant and realize that that
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  realizes that this person is speaking and not quite absorbing because they're really putting out
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  their ideas more than they're receiving anything in So he decides, you know what,
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  I'm gonna invite this guy over for a cup of tea and then maybe
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  we can have a one on one and maybe that setting might help to curtail
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  this conversation and make it, you know, a lot less of what it
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  had been, which was mostly one sided. So so he starts pouring the
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  tea into a cup and before you know it, the tea is overflowing out
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  of the cup. Well, that confuses this professor because he's thinking, why
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  are you still pouring this tea? It has already overflowed out of the cup,
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  and the zen master uses that as an opportunity. You knew a lesson
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  was coming, didn't you to say, Hey, just like this cup,
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  you are full of your own opinions and your own speculations. So how can
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  you zen? How can you zen unless you first empty your cup? So
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  I'm gonna ask you, how can you zen unless you first empty your cup?
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  And I think we get it. The moral of the story here is
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  in order to learn, in order to grow, in order to effectively adapt
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  to your life, situations, experiences, all of things are going to happen,
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  you first have to empty your mind. You got to remove the assumptions
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  and all of the things you thought were going to be the outcomes so you
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  can have a true and authentic experience. One of the quotes that I think
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  works really well with this week's topic is knowledge becomes power when we apply and
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  use it. And I know we've heard this saying that knowledge is power,
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  but this is saying it's taking it to the next level to say that knowledge
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  isn't going to become power until we do something with the knowledge, until we
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  apply it. And it really touched me personally because It kind of goes back
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  to the onset of the podcast when I was just thinking about, you know,
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  how I wanted to finish a year strong. But there's so many things
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  that I've learned this year that I haven't fully applied them into the different areas
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  of my life, my business, my finances, and all the different areas.
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  There's just so many things that I still need to apply so that I
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  can get the benefit of the power that comes with all this knowledge that I've
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  been gathering all year. And so that's just me being transparent about where I
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  am in finishing this year and where I want to start my twenty twenty four
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  my new year is with this strong finish and a strong start in applying what
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  I learned. And so I want us to go on this journey today about
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  emptying the cup, because because so many of you have not adopted a Zen
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  mindset, how can you zen if you don't first empty your cup. So
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  a Zen mindset is basically your mind allows you to see things for the first
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  time. Think about a new born baby just exploring the world and just from
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  a fresh pair of eyes, a fresh lens, nothing's tinted or tainted their
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  you know, imagination they can paint with a clean, brand new canvas.
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  They are just living in the current experience of seeing things, experiencing things for
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  the first time. See, we start to create our biases and we begin
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  to have confirmation bias because we've lived a life, we've done a thing,
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  we've been a place, and so we use the experience that we had.
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  So think about it like this. Maybe you had a particular experience with a
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  professional in whatever arena that you seek professional assistance that is contrary to someone else
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  that has had that experience. Right, so you're going to have a particular
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  bias about what that experience has been or was, whether it be good or
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  bad. And you can find information. That's the thing about it. It's
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  really interesting that you can literally google information about that topic that will support or
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  deny the claim that you stand on regarding that topic. And so what that
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  does is it just prevents you from expanding your knowledge because you don't have a
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  different perspective. You can go find a perspective that is similar or equal to
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  yours. And so again, having that zen mindset is really putting you into
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  a place where you can see things from a new perspective and That's why it's
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  important to empty your cup, because you want to have a mindset that is
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  receptive. You want to be open. This professor who was just kind of
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  babbling on didn't have an open mindset. He didn't sit there ready to receive.
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  He was more providing his opinion and his experience about the situation. And
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  oftentimes we do that. So today I want us to take this practice not
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  just from the academic side, which typically is that whole knowledge learning application power
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  type thing, into how do we empty our cup and why it's it so
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  important? Well, first of all, you need to be open to new
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  ideas. Everybody out there that's listening to this podcast, you want to usher
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  something new into your life. And if you're going to usher something in new,
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  you're gonna often require to have new ideas or be open to new ideas
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  that are out there, because those new ideas will help you with a different
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  perspect that you otherwise wouldn't have because typically your perception is your perspective, and
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  in order to gain new perspective, you need to experience and be open to
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  new ideas. And what that does is that essentially creates space in your mind
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  so that you can begin to absorb new information. You can begin to absorb
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  and even retain some of the insights that you get by being open. The
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  other thing is adaptability. Some of you have been so rigid and it's been
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  consequently difficult for you to embrace. This often happens when challenges occur. You
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  know, we can plan for what we know could happen, but sometimes the
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  challenges are those things that are the unexpected, the unknowns, and the things
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  that require the insurance plan, the just in case moments that happen in life.
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  So being of a mindset to be receptive, to be open, allows
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  you to adapt to the changes that are happening on a constant basis. Just
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  think about all the change that you went through this year. You know,
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  your own personal changes that you dealt with, your family changes, watching your
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  kids grow up. I mean that's a change in itself. If you're in
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  a relationship with someone, watching how the dynamics of that relationship EBB then flowed.
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  So being able to adapt to the things that are happening in your home
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  and even outside of your home at work, and you know at the different
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  areas that you operate in your life, you're going to come into understanding and
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  agreement that in order to change effectively, you're going to have to have clear
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  mental empty mind so that you can embrace the things that are headed your way
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  or in your space. Another reason why it's important to empty your cup is
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  because you are managing your personal growth. And that's a big part of why
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  I have this podcast, because I want you to do things to be more
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  enriched. And oftentimes when we think about being more enriched, we think about
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  adding things into our life. For the personal growth reasons that I want to
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  talk about right now, and of course, in the spirit of emptying the
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  cup, I want you to think about what can be removed, and so
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  I always go back to the garden reference. I always go back to the
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  plant reference because I grew up with a mother that gardened my entire life,
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  and in a garden, one of the things that you're responsible for is to
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  remove all the weeds, right and then you know some of the dead and
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  deceased branches that are out there. You want to get rid of that because
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  it helps the plant to breathe. And it's all about energy moving energy around.
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  Plans have energy and it helps the plan to grow in a healthy way.
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  Think about that and apply that to your life. As you start to
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  empty your cup, you're starting to eliminate and remove the distractions, and you're
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  starting to remove the negative influences, be it people, place, or thing
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  in your life so that you can stay focused on what truly matters. Same
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  thing like the garden. You're removing the things you don't need, the things
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  that aren't serving you, the things that aren't giving you room to breathe energy
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  for you to grow in the right direction. Those are things that are important
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  to emptying out your cup. Now, what I want you to think about
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  today and before we wrap things up on this episode, I want you to
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  think about how you personally can practice emptying your cup in your daily life.
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  Now, one of the first things from that I think about when it comes
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  to the act of emptying my cup is saying no. Is saying no to
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  anything that is contrary to me emptying my cup. Right, because we say
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  yes sometimes to a default, and that default becomes our demise. That's right,
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  we say yes almost as a default. Somebody asks you something, you
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  automatically go into the default of yes, and then you face a demise on
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  the other end. It's time to start saying no, and I'm gonna tell
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  you why your no is important. I'm going to draw a line from my
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  no to the word rest. So I'm not just gonna say no, but
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  I'm gonna say no with intention because I need rest. And the rest may
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  not be what you think it is. It may just be mentally, you're
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  putting yourself in a place, in a space where you don't have to think,
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  or do or be for anyone or anything. That could be rest,
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  or it could simply be going to sleep, getting enough sleep at the end
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  of the day so that you can function at a high capacity, so that
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  you can essentially empty your cup. Here's what I learned about sleeping. If
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  you didn't know the science behind sleeping and why the doctor says you need to
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  get your rest and everybody tells you it's important to get a good night's rest,
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  here's why. Scientifically, the brain, this is what happens when you
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  rest. This is what happens when you sleep. The brain stores new information
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  and it gets rid of toxic waste. So even the brain understands, even
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  your body is meant to be in that zen space. How do you use
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  zen brain? Well, when I go to bed, when you go to
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  bed. Your brain is going in the zen mode because it's getting new information
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  and it's getting rid of that are no longer serving it. Here's another scientific
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  process of rest or sleep. Nerve cells communicate and reorganize, and that supports
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  healthy brain function. Look at all the things your brain is doing to zen.
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  Are you doing some zen work? Your brain is at work. Okay.
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  Finally, your body, your body's cells go into repair mode. Your
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  body starts to restore energy and release molecules like hormones and proteins, all things
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  that you need for a functioning you, a better functioning you. And so
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  again, even the body, the mind, the rest that you give yourself,
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  which I call a gift. I like to call it a gift,
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  is the gift that keeps giving because it's also working on emptying the cup.
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  Another one for me is activity and movement. I am a big believer in
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  moving your energy. I know that it's not just about the physical activity.
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  It's also about the mind and the mental activity that you are participating in.
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  As you're doing a physical activity, here's a physical activity will do for you.
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  It releases chemicals that also help your brain feel good. I know we
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  talk about endorphins. That's one of those things. But also it helps with
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  self esteem. That's mind, and it helps you to concentrate that's your mind
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  too. Finally, and I mentioned this earlier, is what can you do
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  to empty your cup daily? And for me, it's going to be application.
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  We talked about it, right, So knowledge is power or becomes power
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  when we apply it and use it. How do I make an empty my
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  cup on a daily basis? Application? And I want you to think about
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  a baby taking those first steps. Right. There's a quote by Richard Branson
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  where he says, you don't learn to walk by following the rules. You
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  learn by doing and by falling over. And that makes me think when a
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  baby starts walking, there are no rules to the walking. There is no
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  It can only be in this room, it can only be when mommy and
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  daddy are home, it can only be from this distance to that distance.
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  There are no rules in learning to walk. They're willing to explore the world,
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  Like we talked about with a zen mindset. That baby has a zen
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  mindset ready to explore the world all of a sudden, which is why it's
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  so hard sometimes to capture the first steps. That baby's mind is working and
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  the own the only way that baby's gonna get it is to do it,
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  not to do it with rules of engagement, but just to get up and
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  do it. And what's interesting is if the baby falls, oftentimes the parents
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  and the adults in the room are the ones that are reacting to, oh
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  my gosh, the baby's gonna get hurt. But the baby's willing to,
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  even after that fall, get up and do it multiple times. And if
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  you are overstimulated because the baby falls, they're probably unlikely to do what's natural
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  to them, which is to go back out and make that attempt again.
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  I want you to think about again as you go throughout your week, what
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  you can do, how you can practice emptying your cup, not just today
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  but every day in your daily life. What can you do to empty your
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  cup? But remember, there is great value in this exercise of emptying your
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  cup because you're making room for new experiences, You're making room from new knowledge.
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  And as you go along and you make room for that, you're better
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  equipped to navigate into all of the various things that life is gonna throw at
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  you, because life will throw things at you. And make sure you ask
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  yourself this question, how can you zen unless you first empty your cup.
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  I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of the Urine Ritsub podcast. And the
• 21:34
  only way I'm gonna know this is if you leave me some feedback. Feedback
• 21:37
  is a gift and it is free to give, and I would like to
• 21:41
  hear from you. I would like to know what resonated with you regarding this
• 21:45
  week's episode. Now here's how you leave feedback on the platform and which you
• 21:49
  listen to this podcast. Follow the stars when you get there, leave a
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  send it to the last three to five people that you spoke with today.
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  Also, you can share this on your socials. You can find me primarily
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  me at my enriched self that's m y E n R C h E D
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  s E l F, and you can hashtag this episode. You can tag
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  friends and families and those in the social streets what you're listening to and what's
• 22:52
  feeding you mind, body and spirit. I also want you to check out
• 22:56
  the show notes. In the show notes, we have the affirm of the
• 23:00
  week, the quote of the week, and there you can also find my
• 23:04
  Amazon shop. The Your Rich Self shop has two items right now, a
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  journal which is the show Up Everyday Journal, as well as they show Up
• 23:15
  Everyday notebook. So check those out in my Amazon shops. And finally,
• 23:21
  take what you can from this episode and do what you must in the next
• 23:26
  one hundred and sixty eight hours so that you can become more of your enriched
• 23:30
  self until we meet again.