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From Struggles to Strength: Harnessing Human Connection · Eye Opener Society

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Eye Opener Society. I am your host, Gary.
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  And I've been pulling a bunch of episodes this month, just trying to get a library set up.
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  And today, unexpectedly, I was supposed to actually record an episode with Jennifer
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  Miller, and she just wasn't feeling up to it.
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  So I said, all right, no big deal. We got enough in the library.
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  But then someone contacts me and the
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  show is not very guest heavy so you know you got
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  to kind of take into consideration the person and who it is
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  and all but this person reaches out to me and says hey listen you
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  know want to record an episode with you so i was like
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  all right you know not a big deal but the thing
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  is it's who the person is and
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  with me now in the studio who
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  wanted to do a podcast is our favorite
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  hannah hannah welcome back
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  to the show hi everyone hey hey
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  i'm here what's i'm back bitches it's so great to have you back it's um it's
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  very comforting to me now you know you know you just kind of i'm just falling
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  right into the group of everything but yeah you contact me say hey listen you
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  don't want to shoot a podcast i'm like okay,
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  And I know it's been tough recently with everything going on.
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  It's hard to, you know, do these episodes, but you brought up a subject that
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  you felt you wanted to talk about.
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  And after hearing it, I said, yeah, this is absolutely great.
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  So listen, I'm going to turn the microphones over to you and go for it, buddy.
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  Yeah. So just lately with everything personally going through in my life,
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  you know, it takes a village to go through things that you're going through.
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  I'm not ready really to talk about everything that I am going through.
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  And I do appreciate the support behind the scenes. I've been absent, but it takes a village.
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  And once you are going through things that you are going through,
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  you kind of realize who your true village is.
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  And it kind of makes you look from the outside looking in how much these people are devoted to you back.
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  So, you know, just recently I've found myself having a,
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  I don't know how to word it, a spell, you could say, just realizing that these
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  people are devoted to you.
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  And in turn, in the thick of healing of things, you find yourself being devoted to them back.
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  So I wanted to talk about basically devotion to
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  people and your village and finding your
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  good people yeah and with everything
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  that you have been going through yeah it does it's it's
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  there's a lot of support on the back end and
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  there's a lot of people that are suffering right alongside with you me included
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  and yeah in order to pick up all those pieces of your life to bring everything
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  you know back into reality and healing yourself and you know everything that's involved with it,
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  does it takes people people that are caring people that
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  are willing and just people that are going
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  to show their support and you know
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  i've relied on that myself lately yeah and it
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  just seems like you're using you know that same philosophy too as well yeah
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  and i think with me it's like it's one thing for and it's not that well wishes
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  aren't meaningful because they are but it's one thing for someone to be like
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  yeah i'm here for you but then it's another thing to just be like, wow,
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  these people are actually truly here for me.
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  Holding me up while I'm struggling and helping me continue on and truly,
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  truly like are here for me, support me.
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  And it means absolutely like the absolute world to me.
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  And sometimes, you know, in the thick of healing, you feel unworthy and a way for me to cope.
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  And it's not necessarily even, I don't want to word it like that,
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  but in a way, it's like giving back to those people when I can or lending a
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  hand when I'm going through the thick of healing when they need something.
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  It almost heals me in a way because I'm giving back and I'm showing my devotion
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  back to them. So it's not necessarily one-sided.
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  And even if it was one-sided in a moment, those people that are still willing
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  to pick you up from your crumbles and like...
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  It's just amazing that there are good people in the world and that you find
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  these people when you're going through ugly things in your life.
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  Yeah. And as a whole in society, as human beings, this is something we need more of anyway. Yeah.
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  It's beyond just helping out one individual person and nobody knows anything about.
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  But that creates that wave of devotion towards other people. And yeah, we do.
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  We need more of that in society. I totally agree with that.
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  I feel that many people are tossed aside these days, especially when it comes to mental health.
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  There's so much of it now. All of a sudden, out of nowhere in the last few years,
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  it really became the forefront. Yeah.
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  And it's a stigma still to this day.
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  And to get the help you need professionally is even difficult because there's
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  more people in need than there are people that are willing to give.
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  So that's why it's really good to have that support, that real positive backbone
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  behind you to support you for those things. Yeah. And it's raw.
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  They see you at your worst and then they somehow help you, you know,
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  in the moments where you feel the worst, they make you, you know, feel okay.
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  Like you're not suffocating as much, you know, they're,
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  they're like a breath of fresh air for you. And in return,
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  it's like you don't realize it, but as they're trying to help you repair your
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  cup, you're filling their cup because it's like satisfactory type feeling.
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  And it's just like a wholesome, loving feeling that these people make you feel.
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  And it's amazing to me just how the world can be so ugly.
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  And when you're unfortunately going through ugly things, you find the people
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  that, or you come to the realization that like, wow, these people really ride for me.
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  They are not going to let me fall.
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  And it kind of helps gives you a boost. Like I can fucking do this,
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  you know, like I'm not alone.
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  And it doesn't matter how many of those people you have behind you,
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  even if it's just one, it matters. It makes a difference.
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  It gives you something to hold onto. It's a life raft that keeps you afloat.
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  Yeah. And you're not like, and I think the most kind of important message out
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  of this is that you're not alone.
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  Even when you do feel alone, even if it's one person, even if it's an animal
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  or something like that, like you're not alone.
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  And to see their devotion towards you makes you realize that you're also devoted to them.
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  And it just becomes this like sacred bond that you just appreciate so wholeheartedly.
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  And every day it's just like, you just wake up and you, you like look back and
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  you reflect and you're like, wow, like I'm doing this, I'm going to be okay.
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  And I have these people behind me or I have these things behind me and you're not alone.
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  And unfortunately, in the darkest moments is when even if you can't see the
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  light, you start to see the glimmers of the lights from those people.
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  And you use those
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  lights and you find your way back to yours and this
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  entire situation um that we're all
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  going through that we're all you know feeling you know the pressures from it's
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  we definitely have um a good support system between all of us we actually have
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  each other to fall back on we actually have that amongst us.
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  And it's not so much telling each other, Hey, this is the way you're going to do things from here.
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  This is just saying, Hey, listen, we all know we're going through some bad things right now.
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  However, we all got each other's back.
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  Yeah. And I think it's just important to realize that there's going to be bad
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  days and there's going to be good days.
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  But as long as you stay true to yourself and, you know,
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  not necessarily in a way, but give
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  back to that support system that is supporting you during the bad days.
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  You'll find yourself having more good days than bad days because you reflect
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  and you realize these people have already helped me come so far.
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  And it's not even necessarily that they did the work.
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  They just gave you the tools and you just reflected and learned from them.
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  And it's just, it's just the most powerful thing to come to realization about
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  is that you're truly not alone.
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  Yeah. And that's the feeling I get just from this immediate nucleus that you
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  and I have, you know, your mom.
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  You know, it's, it does, it means a lot and it does,
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  it lifts you up during those times because you say,
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  yeah, even if you just have one bad day, but this has been a multitude of
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  bad days multitude of bad months yeah and you
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  know the bad luck continued to roll
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  even up to now you know and we're slowly
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  building ourselves out of that and i don't think we would have been able to
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  do it either one of us individually if it wasn't for the fact that we were all
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  together yeah exactly and you have further other people too you know that are coming into your life,
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  you know, or already have been in your life and, you know, giving you that extra
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  support that you need. Yeah.
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  And it's, it's like amazing to me that in term, when you're,
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  you feel so broken in moments and months and days, and then you learn from these
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  people and then they, they start to heal you,
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  help you heal yourself and you create this new version of yourself.
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  And And, you know, a part of it is so scary because you don't want to change.
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  But then you realize that you're just gaining these like cognitive skills and,
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  you know, traits from these people.
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  And they shift you into this person that you're like, wow, like,
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  I never thought I could be here. Like, I never thought that I would be OK.
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  And, you know, by any means, do I feel OK?
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  I can say I'm I'm all right. You know, like if you would have asked me a couple
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  days ago, weeks ago, I may have not been like, been able to be like,
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  yeah, I'm okay. But now it just, it flows off my tongue.
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  And I see myself becoming a more in tune person.
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  And I didn't, I just thought like this was the end, you know,
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  like, I don't know who I'm ever going to be anymore. I'm broken. I lost myself.
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  And just to see the progress that I've made and the reflections of people who
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  have been in my life and supporting me, it's emotional for me because I just,
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  like I said, it just goes back to, I just never thought I'd be here. And...
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  You see things from different perspectives and you find yourself reacting to things differently.
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  And in turn, when you're like, I guess basically what I'm trying to say is,
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  is that it's like when you're when you're at the worst broken version of yourself
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  and you just start putting in the work and you have these people around you, this village.
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  They mend you into the person that I think
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  that the broken version of you needed
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  to you know hug you
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  and support you and in the
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  back of your head you know like just give you those
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  resources and everything that you needed so it's just you know amazing to see
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  you know by all means do I am I am I still going through a lot absolutely do
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  I cry a lot still absolutely but I know now that I will be okay.
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  That's fantastic to hear because you also understand to, you know,
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  what you and I do right here on this show.
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  Um, and we have been for over, you know, past year and a half, almost two years.
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  We help others, you know, and I've been waiting for so long for you to come back and sit next to me.
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  And look, we're doing it now, but we're not doing it in our old studio.
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  I mean, look around, we're in a whole nother place.
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  I was thinking of changing it from Eye Opener Society to podcast in a bag because
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  literally that's what it is.
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  I carry a bag around and I got to pull everything out and set everything up to do a show.
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  But you know what? We're doing it. And here we are doing it again now.
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  It doesn't matter the location or the space. It just matters about the energy
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  that we bring in and we pour out on the mic, you know, because it's coming from
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  within. It's coming from our chakras. It's coming from our energies.
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  And that's all that matters.
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  Yeah. Because I'm speaking from the heart. I'm not speaking from a forum that
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  I found online or I'm speaking from me.
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  I'm speaking from my real life. And I'm not even getting into detail about my,
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  like, you know, real life.
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  It's just I was down in the fucking dumps.
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  My life is literally turmoil. You know, but I and it took months for me,
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  but I wanted to get on the mic and I wanted to like people to know that I was literally on the edge.
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  My foot was leaning over and it was just constantly me, the wind pushing me
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  back from just going off of the ledge. And.
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  The wind, which is the support that I had around me, pushed me off that ledge.
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  So I'm sitting on the ledge, but I'm not one foot off of the ledge anymore.
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  That's a beautiful thing.
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  I think we've all kind of been there in one form or another,
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  whether it be less as intense, more as intense, but we've all lived through it.
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  And again, I'm bringing the fact that the fact that you're on
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  show today gives me hope because i
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  know there's probably millions of people
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  out there that need to hear from you
• 15:08
  yeah once things clear and we can talk more freely yes i think you are going
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  to be probably one of the largest influences you know people can get we're not
• 15:20
  mainstream we're not reaching the entire world yet but the more people start
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  spreading this and start understanding we're real people,
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  real everyday people, just like you, you guys that are turning us on,
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  you know, slapping on a pair of headphones and just listening to something to get you through the day.
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  You're hearing from people that been through so much and especially Hannah.
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  And I know it's going to open up the doors for bigger opportunities, not only for Hannah,
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  but to our listening audience, because they're going to say,
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  Hey, I've been there myself and look,
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  they made it i can make it as well you know
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  in the thick of healing um your
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  door when you're going through stuff it it remains
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  cracked but the most important thing that
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  i think every day i wake up and remind myself is is
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  that that door one day will be closed and it's
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  just it goes centimeter by centimeter sometimes
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  but that's okay because as long as i'm getting up every day
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  and reminding myself that the door will be closed and then i just continue on
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  you know and it's hard not to sit and like say everything um and i'm just not
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  ready to do that yet i don't know when if i will ever be ready um.
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  But if you would have asked me even maybe three weeks ago, I would have told
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  you that there's a permanent wedge at the door and that it's going to forever remain cracked.
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  But now I know that that wedge was the negative outweighing my positive.
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  And it took me a while, but I just glimmered every day a little bit more positive
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  in and more positive in. And I've removed that wedge.
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  And it's up to me now to just make sure that every day I'm being patient and I'm closing that door,
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  even if it's just a centimeter at each time until it's closed and I can truly move on. There you go.
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  I can't thank you enough for coming in here and talking
• 17:24
  like this and bringing back the comfort that
• 17:27
  I've come to know being besides you and doing
• 17:29
  this show um things are
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  changing rapidly every day yeah and we're always
• 17:35
  going down a new direction and it does
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  it winds up becoming up to us to change
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  and adapt to all these new changes and to make things ours again like you said
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  yeah we're in a different place but that place is filled now with our energy
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  and this is now going to be claimed as our place we can sit here and do a show
• 17:54
  you can get that raw emotion out again yeah and you're welcome to come on,
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  anytime you feel like it.
• 18:00
  I mean, it's my show, so. Well, yeah, true. I guess there's that too.
• 18:05
  But I totally...
• 18:07
  Need to have you here. I think because the audience needs to hear these things.
• 18:13
  You guys will hear my voice popping in every once in a while. Very good. For sure.
• 18:18
  I appreciate that more than you know. And the audience does too.
• 18:22
  It's been a while. This has been a while since we've had a talk like this.
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  And as we find, you know, those other opportunities where you can,
• 18:31
  you know, come in and spread your, you know, true, you know, raw emotions.
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  Please do. I think we need to do that. So we also have a live show on Wednesday
• 18:43
  and each, twice a month that you could always call into as well.
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  I'll disguise my voice. There you go.
• 18:50
  Yeah, there's definitely that. But Liz and Hannah, thank you.
• 18:53
  Thank you so much for doing this show and coming in here today.
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  I really think this is going
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  to mean a lot to a lot of people so don't forget everybody we have our live
• 19:03
  uh talk show and uh iopener society.podbean.com that's where you find the top
• 19:09
  of the page i have a link it says live talk show go there follow that link join
• 19:13
  us join us on wednesday nights twice a month uh you got to follow us on facebook too,
• 19:19
  iopener society i give information when we're going to do it i was
• 19:22
  going to do it every week but i think it's just too much we're all going
• 19:25
  through so much right now i think doing that every week would
• 19:28
  just cause a little too much anxiety for everybody
• 19:31
  involved so uh twice a month is going to
• 19:34
  be great and i'll let you know all the dates when they
• 19:37
  uh show up and uh i wish
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  hannah well i you know hope that uh we have some more episodes like this and
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  i can't wait till we get back into the full swing of things where hannah can
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  actually start talking for sure you know the way she should be um without any
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  kind of restrictions so everybody i thank you so much And I thank you,
• 19:57
  Hannah. All right. See ya.