Latest / Feel Really Good: Empowering Meditations / I Call BS on "Good Vibes Only”💩

Transcript

I Call BS on "Good Vibes Only”💩 · Feel Really Good: Empowering Meditations

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: I call BS on good vibes only.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to be happy all the time could actually be making you feel worse.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever tried to talk yourself out of a bad mood?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: To lay your gratitude on top of deep grief or positivity on top of extreme anxiety?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then quietly scold yourself for not being quote unquote further along by now?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: If so, you're in good company.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've done it more times than I can count.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been immersed in the meditation and yoga world for almost two decades
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: as both student and teacher.
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  SPEAKER_00: Here's something I've noticed about the wellness world.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: When we first jump into a spiritual or wellness journey,
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: there's often a stretch of time where we climb up on a high horse and start
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: to believe that we found all the answers to our own suffering.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Gosh, do I wish it was that simple.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: As someone who's been exploring her own transformation,
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: spirituality,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: and what personal wellness looks like for more than 15 years,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I still catch myself questioning certain emotions.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm definitely still on my own journey of deepening my relationship to self,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: and it's unfolding every single day.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's wonderful to care for your body, mind,
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  SPEAKER_00: and spirit by exploring mindset shifts and attuning to the kind
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: of life we actually want to live.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Keep going.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: That work is essential.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: However,
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: there's one idea I want to call out because I think running it on replay in the back
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: of our minds is quietly hurting a lot of us.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: This belief that some emotions are quote unquote high vibration
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  SPEAKER_00: and others are quote unquote low vibration.
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  SPEAKER_00: That high equals good and low equals bad.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: That we should walk through life with a positive only philosophy.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that we shouldn't allow some emotions to be there at all.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do believe there are frequencies that I want to align with more often,
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: like love, kindness, joy, gratitude, hope, excitement, health, enthusiasm.
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  SPEAKER_00: I could go on and on.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I invite those in on purpose in my life because they remind me how incredible it is
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: to be human and how grateful I am for the life I have.
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  SPEAKER_00: What I'm calling out is the deliberate shaming of the emotions and frequencies
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  SPEAKER_00: that are more challenging to feel.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: We might start to believe that
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  SPEAKER_00: if we're feeling something quote unquote low vibration,
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  SPEAKER_00: guilt, grief, anger, frustration, deep sadness, then we've somehow fallen behind.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: That we're not spiritual enough,
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  SPEAKER_00: not evolved enough, not good enough at our own personal wellness practices.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: As if the goal were to transcend certain feelings and live in a permanent state
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: of good vibes only, I'm very familiar with this concept.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: I often hear colleagues and wellness world influencers
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: with prominent platforms reference what we should and shouldn't let into our lives.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I've sometimes, unfortunately, allowed that to influence how I relate to myself.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Years after I started teaching,
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  SPEAKER_00: I went through a massive wave of imposter syndrome
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: because I was experiencing some very,
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: very low days and was challenged, even to this day, with anxiety.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say things to myself like,
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: aren't yoga and meditation teachers supposed to be closer to peace,
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  SPEAKER_00: closer to enlightenment, somehow above the guilt and grief and anger?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Shouldn't I be able to let things roll off me and go with the flow
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  SPEAKER_00: without creating fluctuations within me?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Am I a bad teacher because I feel deeply challenged by life sometimes?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: These questions would swim around in my mind, and it was making me feel so much worse.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Here's something I've learned, mostly the hard way.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: There are no bad emotions.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: There are times I simply cannot cover up the realness of what I'm feeling with
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: a cloak of gratitude and positivity.
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  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
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  SPEAKER_00: That is perfectly normal and healthy.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there are emotions I hope to feel more often and others I'd file under less than ideal.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: But even those categories are a slippery slope to harsh self-judgment.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is, every emotion belongs.
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  SPEAKER_00: The ones that feel less than ideal aren't something to turn away from,
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  SPEAKER_00: resist, or pretend that we're above.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's immense wisdom in the very feelings some people would label low vibration.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we say to ourselves, nope,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's not okay for me to feel this,
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: what we're really saying is, it's not okay for me to be human.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And trying to be less human,
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  SPEAKER_00: covering your life with a blanket of positivity and turning away from
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  SPEAKER_00: the multifacets of what make you unique and real,
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  SPEAKER_00: is a one-way ticket to getting further and further away from coming home
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  SPEAKER_00: to yourself.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Feeling hard emotions can really suck.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: But those emotions are here to teach us something.
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  SPEAKER_00: I still love the idea that emotions are energy in motion and that the only way
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: through something is to actually go through it,
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: not around it, not ignoring it, not pretending that we're better than it.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Often the hardest emotions carry the biggest lessons.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones that move us to change something,
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's in our own personal lives or in the world around us.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of squeezing ourselves into a box that some guru or author
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: or leader told us is the quote unquote right way to feel more often,
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  SPEAKER_00: I think embracing all of it,
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  SPEAKER_00: saying yes to our full humanity is one of the most incredible gifts that we can lean
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  SPEAKER_00: into.
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  SPEAKER_00: Wellness is deeply personal.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's journey looks different and mine was never meant to be a template for yours.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: But here's one thing that I'd like to offer you in case it's helpful.
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  SPEAKER_00: The more we integrate our emotions,
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: instead of turning away from the quote unquote wrong ones,
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  SPEAKER_00: the richer and more fulfilling our lives will become.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: We get to feel all of it.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when we let ourselves be moved by everything we feel,
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  SPEAKER_00: not just the pretty parts of our lives,
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  SPEAKER_00: we become the kind of people who build more connected,
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  SPEAKER_00: more loving, And healthier world.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So my invitation to all of us is challenge the idea that you have to be happy all the time.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to greet everything with a smile to prove you're spiritual or evolving.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to be willing to feel.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: This week's journal prompts are available at the bottom of this post,
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: and I hope that they support you on your own journey.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this coming Monday's meditation is centered around raising your vibration.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not about ignoring all the emotions of your humanness,
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  SPEAKER_00: but to connect with the energy and qualities that you want to embody more fully
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: in your life.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really special one.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of fun writing it and recording it, so I really hope that you enjoy it.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And also be sure to check out my full library of guided meditations.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is growing weekly.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I hope they can support you with what you need to Feel Really Good more often.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to like,
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: restack,
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: or comment on this post so more people like us in
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: the Substack community can find it.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for your support, and I look forward to sharing more with you next week.