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148: Tour du Mont Blanc: 3 Lessons on Being Present and Living Your Way · The Everyday Awesome Project

• 0:27
  Polly Mertens: Hey superstars, welcome back.
• 0:28
  Polly Mertens: Paula here.
• 0:29
  Polly Mertens: I know Samantha Pruitt.
• 0:30
  Polly Mertens: So a little episode for you today.
• 0:32
  Polly Mertens: I am very excited to share about my Tour de Mont Blanc experience.
• 0:37
  Polly Mertens: So if you didn't listen to the pre-going on my trip episode, have a look, listen to that.
• 0:42
  Polly Mertens: If you want to know like more about like the logistics of it, I go into like how much how long it is and things like that.
• 0:49
  Polly Mertens: But quickly, it's Mont Blanc is a mountain in the Alps, and it doesn't, it's all three.
• 0:55
  Polly Mertens: I was like, it's the Swiss Alps, it's the French Alps, it's the Italian Alps.
• 0:59
  Polly Mertens: So it's a giant mountain that sits at the intersection of those three countries, Switzerland, France, and Italy.
• 1:04
  Polly Mertens: It's a circumnavigating, so it's not a through hike, some people sometimes say, like you just go in one direction, you actually go around the entire mountain.
• 1:11
  Polly Mertens: It's a little over 100 miles, and it was absolutely amazing.
• 1:16
  Polly Mertens: So, what I'm going to share with you in this episode is, you know, I just came back from being in Italy, Switzerland, and France for I was a total of 16 days, was how how long I was gone.
• 1:27
  Polly Mertens: The trek itself was 10 days, and it's truly one of the most extraordinary mountain landscapes I've ever experienced.
• 1:33
  Polly Mertens: I mean, like incredible, incredible.
• 1:37
  Polly Mertens: And I knew before I went this would, you know, possibly be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but it wasn't really what I was saying.
• 1:42
  Polly Mertens: I was just like, oh, you know, I've been dreaming about this, like I dreamed about going to Bali and I dreamed about, you know, going to Croatia or different things, right?
• 1:49
  Polly Mertens: But this one had been calling me.
• 1:51
  Polly Mertens: Samantha and I had talked about my podcast co-host here, Samantha, had talked about doing this someday, and it just kept getting pushed out and pushed out and pushed out.
• 1:59
  Polly Mertens: And an opportunity came last year and was like, I'm doing it.
• 2:02
  Polly Mertens: So I want to share what the experience was actually like, what I thought it was going to be like, what you know, what I expected, but what it was actually like.
• 2:08
  Polly Mertens: Um, in case you have this on your list or you're thinking about something like this, talk to you about what surprised me.
• 2:14
  Polly Mertens: And I'll just leave you with three things that I came away with thinking differently or I learned, you know, just kind of like are implanted in me now, like a deeper knowing, if you will.
• 2:22
  Polly Mertens: So oh gosh, what I expected and what it was actually like.
• 2:27
  Polly Mertens: So if you've not seen pictures of Mont Blanc or these beautiful towns, like and towns that like I'd heard of or kind of seen really pretty social media pictures of, and I was like, oh, could it be that pretty?
• 2:39
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, pretty much, pretty much.
• 2:44
  Polly Mertens: It is idyllic, to say the least, you know, and each time I went, so Chamonix, France, was where we started, or that's where the first hotel was, where you know, we that was our beginning base and the end base was in the town of Chamonix, which is just under 4,000 feet elevation in the French Alps, right?
• 3:01
  Polly Mertens: And it's Chamonix actually very well known for hiking and uh mountaineering.
• 3:08
  Polly Mertens: And I mean, I can see why.
• 3:10
  Polly Mertens: Like, I can see why somebody would like stand in this valley and go, I gotta get up on that.
• 3:13
  Polly Mertens: Like, how do I how do I get up there?
• 3:15
  Polly Mertens: Like, what's going on here?
• 3:16
  Polly Mertens: Because you're in these valleys, they are so beautiful on their own, like the valley itself, and then there are these staggering mountains up on each side.
• 3:25
  Polly Mertens: And I've been in places like Telluride, which they say is a box canyon, right?
• 3:29
  Polly Mertens: So it's like the little tiny town of Telluride sits in what's a box canyon, or I would say like a U shape almost where it's like the mountains are around it, or Uray in Colorado, which is like a bowl.
• 3:40
  Polly Mertens: So the little town sits around it.
• 3:42
  Polly Mertens: Well, Chamonix is more like this long, narrow valley, pretty long, um, several miles, probably maybe 10 miles total.
• 3:50
  Polly Mertens: No, probably not that much, maybe maybe 10 miles total, and it's just mountains on either side of it, right?
• 3:54
  Polly Mertens: Just you know, they just jet up.
• 3:57
  Polly Mertens: And so you just walk around this beautiful, you know, French village, cobblestone streets, and it's very touristy, you know, it's it's cute and quaint.
• 4:06
  Polly Mertens: And and of course, the first thing my brain starts doing is like, well, this reminds me of Aspen a little bit, or it's kind of like Vale.
• 4:12
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, this is like Vale.
• 4:13
  Polly Mertens: Okay, you know, just so it can feel comfortable, like, yeah, I know, I know what this is like, whatever, you know, and from that valve from that base, like down in the valley, they have these giant gondolas that go up in different directions.
• 4:26
  Polly Mertens: And picture like all day long, every day, there's people doing that paragliding, or it's kind of like the it's not where you jump out of a plane, it's like you run.
• 4:36
  Polly Mertens: I've done it before, it's parasailing, maybe parasailing, I forget what it's called, where you run off a cliff and you've got this like half parachute, and you just sort of drift and drift and drift with the upwinds.
• 4:49
  Polly Mertens: Well, there's that, there's gondolas, there's beautiful, you know, like green rivers.
• 4:54
  Polly Mertens: Like the water is so mineralized and so clean running through Chamonix.
• 4:58
  Polly Mertens: It's like beautiful green.
• 4:59
  Polly Mertens: So it was just like, okay, this ain't bad, right?
• 5:04
  Polly Mertens: This ain't bad.
• 5:05
  Polly Mertens: And I'm not going to talk about too much the so the at the beginning of the trip, we started on a Monday.
• 5:11
  Polly Mertens: We met Sunday night.
• 5:12
  Polly Mertens: The few days just before, I a friend of mine and I had two travel partners that were from the US, from California, actually, one that I knew here in San Luis, where I live.
• 5:22
  Polly Mertens: We've been training together, and then his uh college friend.
• 5:25
  Polly Mertens: So it was the three of us mostly traveling there.
• 5:27
  Polly Mertens: We did a little trip jaunt beforehand to a little town called Anasi, France, which was lovely.
• 5:33
  Polly Mertens: That was like that blew my mind too.
• 5:35
  Polly Mertens: That was like Tahoe and like Venice or Amsterdam meet.
• 5:39
  Polly Mertens: You know, it's just like cool little cobblestone streets and yummy.
• 5:43
  Polly Mertens: I mean, like Michelin five stars.
• 5:45
  Polly Mertens: I mean, like France food, man.
• 5:46
  Polly Mertens: I used I have a whole new appreciation for France because I the last time I've been in France is about been some time.
• 5:52
  Polly Mertens: So I've done the Chicatera, I've done the Marseille, I've been to Paris, you know.
• 5:57
  Polly Mertens: So I was like, ah, I have a pretty good idea of France.
• 6:00
  Polly Mertens: That was a long time ago.
• 6:01
  Polly Mertens: This, the foodie in me was like, damn, y'all are doing some food up in here.
• 6:06
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 6:07
  Polly Mertens: I mean, I mean, you have to they do it in the French way, you know.
• 6:12
  Polly Mertens: But if you can get some natural or healthy people, you know, that don't just like you know, throw cheese in everything or ladle it up, you know, with too much meat or whatever, it can be done beautifully.
• 6:23
  Polly Mertens: Because talk about freshness.
• 6:25
  Polly Mertens: Wow, wow, wow, wow.
• 6:27
  Polly Mertens: Okay, so I didn't even know I was gonna talk about the food as much, but there you go.
• 6:30
  Polly Mertens: Okay, I thought I was gonna talk about the beauty, but so 10 days of hiking.
• 6:34
  Polly Mertens: So Anna C France, amazing bike riding, you know, on the beach, beautiful blue water.
• 6:40
  Polly Mertens: It was amazing.
• 6:41
  Polly Mertens: So that was a cute little town.
• 6:42
  Polly Mertens: So I knew other things that like what I expected and what it was actually like.
• 6:47
  Polly Mertens: So let's talk about the physical challenge for a minute.
• 6:50
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, I I knew it was going to be physically challenging, some other things.
• 6:55
  Polly Mertens: I knew it was gonna be beautiful scenery.
• 6:57
  Polly Mertens: Like, you know, I had looked at all these social media videos and YouTube videos, and I was like, this is this is cool.
• 7:02
  Polly Mertens: This is cool.
• 7:03
  Polly Mertens: I knew the food would be a little challenging for me, you know.
• 7:06
  Polly Mertens: So I do a kind of an unusual thing.
• 7:08
  Polly Mertens: I swear I'm mostly vegan, but I'll eat fish, right?
• 7:12
  Polly Mertens: For the protein.
• 7:13
  Polly Mertens: And so, you know, I was like, okay, France is all about the cheese, so the dairy.
• 7:17
  Polly Mertens: So, like just you know, trying to get dairy off your plate.
• 7:20
  Polly Mertens: And you know, this region is very much like they love their cows and they love their dairy and they love their cheese.
• 7:27
  Polly Mertens: So, like they like I one night I had risotto and it was like cheese with some rice in it.
• 7:31
  Polly Mertens: I was like, wow, they put cheese everywhere.
• 7:35
  Polly Mertens: So again, I knew the food was gonna be challenging, but I don't think I understood the scale of what I was about to experience, like this 10-day like immersion, right?
• 7:46
  Polly Mertens: So one of the things I said on the Samantha had interviewed me on our pod before I left, and this was like a month ago.
• 7:53
  Polly Mertens: I was like, gosh, it was like August when we were talking about this, and it's now late September, or actually it is now October, and I'm recording this.
• 8:00
  Polly Mertens: I was like, wow, that was over a month ago.
• 8:03
  Polly Mertens: Amazing.
• 8:04
  Polly Mertens: Was you know, what was I just saying about the immensity?
• 8:10
  Polly Mertens: Oh, the food.
• 8:10
  Polly Mertens: You know, I just knew the food was going to be challenging.
• 8:13
  Polly Mertens: Sam had helped me a lot with with food and prep and like you know, training and a whole bunch of things.
• 8:19
  Polly Mertens: So let me let me just go into what was amazing before, like what was surprising or hard.
• 8:24
  Polly Mertens: So what was amazing?
• 8:26
  Polly Mertens: These Alps.
• 8:28
  Polly Mertens: Okay, the immensity of the Alps.
• 8:31
  Polly Mertens: If you've never been in it, so there's like pockets of this, right?
• 8:34
  Polly Mertens: So there's the Italian Alps, the French, I mean, you know, and there's places like the Matterhorn, and what's the other one?
• 8:39
  Polly Mertens: There's another one that's really high up there, anyway.
• 8:42
  Polly Mertens: So Mont Blanc is the one that this trip was centered on.
• 8:46
  Polly Mertens: But man, the Alps are stunning.
• 8:49
  Polly Mertens: Like I was just mesmerized, and you know, Mont Blanc itself surprised me.
• 8:54
  Polly Mertens: You know, I've seen a lot of mountains, but I just didn't expect to expect to be so like infatuated.
• 9:00
  Polly Mertens: Like, how can I get so infatuated?
• 9:02
  Polly Mertens: Like, I just wanted to take pictures of this mountain around every turn.
• 9:05
  Polly Mertens: I was like, there she is.
• 9:06
  Polly Mertens: Oh, it looks different.
• 9:07
  Polly Mertens: You know, like I was like our our hotel in Chamonix looked up on the mountain, and I was like, oh, the clouds are a little bit different.
• 9:13
  Polly Mertens: And I just found myself just constantly just fascinated with her, taking pictures.
• 9:19
  Polly Mertens: And you know, sad thing is like the whole trip, there was only in Chamonix and a little bit in Switzerland that we actually saw Montblanc because we went around it.
• 9:27
  Polly Mertens: So sort of the ability to see it was sometimes hidden by other little ranges or other big ranges, you know, where we went.
• 9:35
  Polly Mertens: So it just felt magical.
• 9:37
  Polly Mertens: Like I don't just sort of fast forward or just tell you about one experience I had.
• 9:42
  Polly Mertens: So it was the last day, and I'm hiking through this valley by myself, and was just like I just want to go slowly and move at my own pace, and I'll maybe talk about that in a minute, like why I was on this part by myself.
• 9:53
  Polly Mertens: But I looked up at Mont Blanc and it had actually rained, or it was planned to rain that day.
• 9:58
  Polly Mertens: So I think it rained that morning, and I just like left after the rain.
• 10:01
  Polly Mertens: So it was like mid-morning, and the mist on the mountain just sort of was like cotton candy, just like like in and out of where I could see it, and I couldn't see it.
• 10:10
  Polly Mertens: And the weather changes in mountains a lot.
• 10:12
  Polly Mertens: So it's like it was sort of like this, the sky was opening up and there was sunlight coming through.
• 10:18
  Polly Mertens: And I was just like, wow, and I just had this total spiritual experience, and I just was so moved.
• 10:26
  Polly Mertens: And one of my downloads was I'm like, I think I need to be living in mountains.
• 10:30
  Polly Mertens: Like I get so moved, and I'm so I appreciate them so much.
• 10:35
  Polly Mertens: More, you know, I live close to the ocean.
• 10:37
  Polly Mertens: I live, you know, within a you know, a few miles of the ocean, and I don't go, I mean, I appreciate it, but not the way that these mountains just sort of like touch my heart or crack my heart open.
• 10:47
  Polly Mertens: So yeah, so that was just really it was different.
• 10:50
  Polly Mertens: It was the the different terrain, the views were different.
• 10:53
  Polly Mertens: So like picture your so you know, like if you look at it on a map, the TMB looks like a big circle around, and in the middle of it sort of is the peak of Mont Blanc, if you will.
• 11:05
  Polly Mertens: So you're like, oh, you just kind of go around it, and you think you sort of like stay at the same level, but oh no, it's basically like every day you go up and over, like they call them passes.
• 11:15
  Polly Mertens: Do you go up and over this pass?
• 11:16
  Polly Mertens: Oh, yeah, and then we're gonna go two passes.
• 11:18
  Polly Mertens: So it's always like we're down in a little valley and we go up and over, even though it looks like we're going around this mountain, it's like we're going up and over and up and over.
• 11:27
  Polly Mertens: So there is no, there is no flat and there is no switchbacks there, and just the the differentness.
• 11:36
  Polly Mertens: So I had this high need for variety, and what was amazing is it was like every hour was different.
• 11:41
  Polly Mertens: It was like the train looked different, like you'd you'd be on a trail that I'd never seen before, a mountain I'd never seen before, or you know, views or or cows or little huts or walking through a little village.
• 11:53
  Polly Mertens: It was just like everything was different.
• 11:54
  Polly Mertens: The views were different, the countries were different, you know.
• 11:56
  Polly Mertens: The the language was different, the money was a little bit different here and there.
• 12:00
  Polly Mertens: It was so much different.
• 12:02
  Polly Mertens: Food was different, right?
• 12:04
  Polly Mertens: And I, this is something I know about myself is I have a high need for variety and exploration and adventure.
• 12:10
  Polly Mertens: So that was incredible.
• 12:12
  Polly Mertens: That just like lit up my newness factor, right?
• 12:15
  Polly Mertens: So the novelty of this trip.
• 12:17
  Polly Mertens: And if you have that too, like, you know, just going somewhere where you're just constantly experiencing something new.
• 12:23
  Polly Mertens: I because I even noticed it, you know, it's actually one of the later days we came back into Chamonix, and it was like, oh, like my brain all of a sudden could associate the town, like because every place we went, each day, each night, different hotel, different shuttles, some, you know, different the people were the same that I was traveling with, and that's it.
• 12:41
  Polly Mertens: I was on a tour.
• 12:41
  Polly Mertens: So there was seven Americans, two Canadians, no, six, six Americans, two Canadians, and a guide.
• 12:49
  Polly Mertens: So nine of us total.
• 12:50
  Polly Mertens: So it's like those people would be the same, but everything else was different.
• 12:53
  Polly Mertens: And then we got into Shamani the last day.
• 12:55
  Polly Mertens: It was like my brain was like, Oh, I remember Shamani.
• 12:57
  Polly Mertens: Like, oh yeah, I remember that building, and I remember that building.
• 13:00
  Polly Mertens: It's amazing how it just tries to start to create patterns and normalize, you know, our experience.
• 13:04
  Polly Mertens: But whoo, it was so great to just be out there and see newness, newness.
• 13:10
  Polly Mertens: Every day it was new.
• 13:10
  Polly Mertens: It's not like you go to, you know, our our houses are so, you know, we become such creatures of habit with this brain of ours, right?
• 13:17
  Polly Mertens: Like, same routine every morning, same grocery store, food, la la la, you know, the sameness and this adventure, these explorations why I do these trips, it's so different.
• 13:28
  Polly Mertens: Like every night I was sleeping in a different bed.
• 13:30
  Polly Mertens: And uh, and I highly recommend that part is I did this tour and thankful to my friend Ellen, who told me about the tour and helped, you know, for a birthday gift, some of it was paid because I would have done a much lower version of this.
• 13:45
  Polly Mertens: You know, I don't know that I would have done the backpacking fully, but I would have had my luggage shipped around because man, that was crazy.
• 13:52
  Polly Mertens: So the luxury of hiking with just a day pack and arriving at a hotel to have a hot shower every night and have all the fucking logistics done, it was heavenly.
• 14:02
  Polly Mertens: It was totally heavenly.
• 14:03
  Polly Mertens: I would highly recommend the company that we went with, the guy that we went with, all of that.
• 14:07
  Polly Mertens: And let's talk, yeah.
• 14:09
  Polly Mertens: And you know, out there it was it was hard.
• 14:12
  Polly Mertens: So picture 10 days.
• 14:14
  Polly Mertens: And I thought like our days would go like six to 10 hours, you know, 10 at the most.
• 14:19
  Polly Mertens: And I could have, thankfully, we had two of the Canadians on the trip were so gracious, they were super fit, like super fit, and could have done any of that like twice, probably, you know, or could have run some of it, right?
• 14:33
  Polly Mertens: They're so fit, and the rest of us were kind of like in a pack, right?
• 14:36
  Polly Mertens: Like we were all in a good speed together, which was great.
• 14:40
  Polly Mertens: You know, nobody was too slow, you know, nobody was, you know, not wanting to get up to stuff.
• 14:46
  Polly Mertens: It was a really good gift that the people that we own on this trip were great.
• 14:50
  Polly Mertens: But I'll tell you, the terrain was rocky as all get out, you know, and and it made it interesting.
• 14:55
  Polly Mertens: Like you you had to stay present, right?
• 14:58
  Polly Mertens: So, I mean, the elevation and the long climbs, like so I have a training hike that I do here at home, and it takes about 45 minutes to get to the top.
• 15:08
  Polly Mertens: I mean, that's the highest that we have here, right?
• 15:10
  Polly Mertens: So it's like 45 minutes, and it's straight pretty much uphill.
• 15:13
  Polly Mertens: There's almost no switchbacks on this mountain.
• 15:15
  Polly Mertens: There's other mountains nearby that have switchbacks, but this is the one that I knew going into it when I saw the elevation gain and the mileage, I was like, oh, this is a this is a steep hike.
• 15:25
  Polly Mertens: These are gonna be steep hikes.
• 15:26
  Polly Mertens: So towards the end, my partner and I, we were training on that mountain a lot.
• 15:32
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, thank God, because uh I wasn't surprised.
• 15:35
  Polly Mertens: There was no, whoa, this isn't like anything I've seen before, right?
• 15:39
  Polly Mertens: So the elevation and the long climb.
• 15:41
  Polly Mertens: So it would be like, okay, so let's get up and we're gonna walk for maybe 20 minutes and then we're just gonna hike for an hour and a half straight up, just like, and then we'll take a little break at the top.
• 15:53
  Polly Mertens: And it was like, holy crap, you know, it was it was tough, you know, every day.
• 15:58
  Polly Mertens: The the not the monotony, but the strenuousness, you know, every day being out there hiking for that long with a backpack in the backpack, you know, when you carry water, we were so blessed.
• 16:08
  Polly Mertens: 10 days we had one day of rain, cold rain, but every every other day was perfect.
• 16:14
  Polly Mertens: I mean, absolutely perfect.
• 16:15
  Polly Mertens: So when you're hiking, you don't want too hot.
• 16:17
  Polly Mertens: And two weeks before, it was like in the 90s in Shimani.
• 16:21
  Polly Mertens: And when we were coming in, actually on the last day, it was like low to mid-70s.
• 16:25
  Polly Mertens: I was like, this is perfect.
• 16:27
  Polly Mertens: It was absolutely perfect.
• 16:28
  Polly Mertens: So other things that were hard is so you know, like schlupping along my own food and taking care of my food needs on this whole trip, you know.
• 16:39
  Polly Mertens: So you picture, you know, in the morning, there's maybe some places, you know, we get in these little little hotels that have limited offerings.
• 16:47
  Polly Mertens: This wasn't the case, but a lot of them it was, and they took such good care of us.
• 16:52
  Polly Mertens: So you'd have, you know, a buffet of maybe sausage and eggs and bacon, you know, whatever.
• 16:58
  Polly Mertens: So you'd and whole milk and yogurt and you know, just all these things that were just dairy, dairy, dairy, meat, meat, meat, right?
• 17:05
  Polly Mertens: And so I was like carving my way, trying to, you know, find food.
• 17:08
  Polly Mertens: So I literally packed like six pounds, like so.
• 17:11
  Polly Mertens: We had this weight limit, 33 pounds, because your weight gets your your weight, your luggage gets moved for you.
• 17:16
  Polly Mertens: So the constraint was like no more than 33 pounds would they carry on this transport.
• 17:22
  Polly Mertens: That was tough.
• 17:24
  Polly Mertens: Like for everything, I was like, oh my gosh.
• 17:25
  Polly Mertens: So six pounds of my 33 pounds, what six and a half pounds, was protein powder, supplements.
• 17:32
  Polly Mertens: I actually packed a tuna, like packages of tuna and power bars.
• 17:37
  Polly Mertens: And I had like this stock of things, you know, to maintain health-wise, if you will.
• 17:42
  Polly Mertens: And I'm so glad I did because a lot of these small towns did not have grape stores.
• 17:47
  Polly Mertens: A couple of them though, Shamani, Kumayur, and I think one other place I was able to get some canned tuna or oh, and smoked salmon.
• 17:54
  Polly Mertens: So I could get like smoked salmon a few times.
• 17:57
  Polly Mertens: So that was super helpful.
• 17:59
  Polly Mertens: And then the other thing that's hard is just the timed eating, right?
• 18:03
  Polly Mertens: So when you're on your own and you're living your own lifestyle, my lifestyle looks like I go to bed early because I get up early for my workouts, and I'm trying to eat around five o'clock, six o'clock at the latest, so I can digest and then go to bed and get up early.
• 18:19
  Polly Mertens: And in the morning, you know, I don't love to, you know, throw food in and then whatever.
• 18:25
  Polly Mertens: So depending on what I'm doing that day, like maybe eat a little something and then I'll eat a little bit later.
• 18:31
  Polly Mertens: And then at dinner, I'm usually done by six.
• 18:33
  Polly Mertens: And in all of these areas, I had no idea about this.
• 18:36
  Polly Mertens: Uh so just note to you if you're having any idea of doing this.
• 18:40
  Polly Mertens: Okay, and I don't remember this from being in France 20 something years ago.
• 18:44
  Polly Mertens: Nothing opens before seven for dinner.
• 18:47
  Polly Mertens: Like, and it was cra it was wild how we found this out.
• 18:50
  Polly Mertens: But like you, you and they finish lunch around 2 or 2.30 and 7 o'clock, nothing opens, and then they all go eat.
• 18:56
  Polly Mertens: It's like, everybody, let's all go to dinners.
• 18:59
  Polly Mertens: I don't know how the restaurants do it, but whatever, 7 till 8 30.
• 19:03
  Polly Mertens: You know, so it's like, oh, we have a dinner reservation at 7 or 7.30 or 7.15, right?
• 19:08
  Polly Mertens: That's sitting down, and then you're eating you know, so you're eating at like eight o'clock at night, and then you're like, I just want to go to bed, you know, and then we got to get up and we've got eight o'clock start time, right?
• 19:18
  Polly Mertens: Which isn't too early.
• 19:19
  Polly Mertens: That's woe is me, whatever.
• 19:20
  Polly Mertens: A couple times we start a little bit later, but I mean, trying to eat that late and then get up and have breakfast first thing when you get out, you know, and then you're on your own a little bit.
• 19:30
  Polly Mertens: Anyway, the food thing was a challenge.
• 19:32
  Polly Mertens: It was a challenge.
• 19:33
  Polly Mertens: So if you ever want to talk about it, happy to share my experience.
• 19:36
  Polly Mertens: But that just was something to work with in my body.
• 19:40
  Polly Mertens: And then, you know, I'm a solo traveler by heart.
• 19:43
  Polly Mertens: I have never, I've done cruises, but not grouped things.
• 19:47
  Polly Mertens: So losing some of the autonomy I normally have to take care of myself and when I want to eat and where I want to go.
• 19:54
  Polly Mertens: I was before I left Samantha interview me and we were talking, and I came up with the word, I'm like, I'm in a portal.
• 19:59
  Polly Mertens: Like, I think I'm going through this portal.
• 20:00
  Polly Mertens: Because Sam's experience on the JMT, and I want to talk a little bit about that.
• 20:03
  Polly Mertens: Was like hers was, you know, it was so she did the John Muir trail.
• 20:09
  Polly Mertens: It was what, like 250 miles or something.
• 20:11
  Polly Mertens: She did it solo backpacking, 18 days, self-sufficient, independent.
• 20:16
  Polly Mertens: She, you know, did what she wanted, camped where she wanted to, that whole thing.
• 20:19
  Polly Mertens: And it was just like this amazing spiritual awakening for her.
• 20:22
  Polly Mertens: Just like so opened her heart, so many good things, one with nature, la.
• 20:26
  Polly Mertens: Mine was nature mostly, you know.
• 20:28
  Polly Mertens: So we were in for six or seven hours, you know, out in nature, which was phenomenal, phenomenal.
• 20:35
  Polly Mertens: But the uh rest of the time, there were eight other souls on the trail that you know you're interacting with, and we're all trying to get up this mountain, you're eating with it's 10 days, was very supportive.
• 20:44
  Polly Mertens: And it was a group.
• 20:45
  Polly Mertens: It was like we went into this tunnel.
• 20:46
  Polly Mertens: I was like, at one point, like, I don't know, three or four days in.
• 20:49
  Polly Mertens: I was like, wow, I really feel like we entered in Shamani in like this tunnel, almost like a like a we got on a train and we're just going around this mountain together.
• 20:58
  Polly Mertens: And it literally was like feeling like that because day in and day out, we would go everywhere together.
• 21:04
  Polly Mertens: We would have breakfast and lunch and dinners together and hang out together and be on the trail together.
• 21:09
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, wow, there was like this tunnel feeling that I felt like I didn't expect and I didn't realize.
• 21:15
  Polly Mertens: Not that it was a tunnel, because like I said, we went up and down and we were on the outside of the mountain.
• 21:18
  Polly Mertens: We weren't in a tunnel, but the experience of being encapsulated, like virtually encapsulated with this group, and we were all doing it together because we'd run into people, and people were doing it in different directions and different time frames, and stopping at different places, and doing different routes, and backpacking, and doing it in 12 days and doing it in six days.
• 21:40
  Polly Mertens: It was like, wow, everybody had their own little tunnel that their their little trip tunnel.
• 21:45
  Polly Mertens: It was like, wow, I'm on this tunnel with these other eight sold, and we're all doing this together.
• 21:50
  Polly Mertens: We're all, I mean, different experiences, but like kind of the same one.
• 21:54
  Polly Mertens: It was pretty remarkable.
• 21:56
  Polly Mertens: It was like, wow.
• 21:57
  Polly Mertens: So that was cool.
• 21:59
  Polly Mertens: That was cool.
• 21:59
  Polly Mertens: So what surprised me?
• 22:02
  Polly Mertens: So let's see.
• 22:04
  Polly Mertens: I I hadn't even I hadn't researched every detail, you know.
• 22:08
  Polly Mertens: So I discovered there's not one way to do the TMB.
• 22:11
  Polly Mertens: There's a quarter, I think they call it the original route or something like that.
• 22:14
  Polly Mertens: So there's like a classic or one route that you could do.
• 22:19
  Polly Mertens: Right, that's called the TMB, and then there's lots of little offshoots.
• 22:22
  Polly Mertens: Like, oh, you can go up and go over here, you could add this, and you could go around, whatever, right?
• 22:27
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, people backpack it, people stay in refuges, people stay in hotels.
• 22:33
  Polly Mertens: There's a little bit of camping.
• 22:34
  Polly Mertens: I don't know how much of that, and I just saw something after we left.
• 22:38
  Polly Mertens: I think they're either doing away with camping or they're gonna like limit it or something.
• 22:42
  Polly Mertens: So I don't know, but I wouldn't have done that.
• 22:45
  Polly Mertens: Like I can tell you from the strenuousness and the difficulty of getting up and over these steep ass mountains with just a backpack was challenging.
• 22:57
  Polly Mertens: Like for 10 days, and people doing this longer to have 35 pounds, like imagine a stairmaster to the top of something, and you're just go.
• 23:07
  Polly Mertens: I don't want to say you're grinding.
• 23:09
  Polly Mertens: It wasn't grinding, but sometimes sometimes it's like, I just gotta grind out this last you know 20 minutes or something.
• 23:15
  Polly Mertens: Like it did feel like that.
• 23:17
  Polly Mertens: Like doing that with 35 pounds on my back was like a hell no.
• 23:20
  Polly Mertens: I was like, and I saw people of all ages, like eight, you know, 60s, 70s.
• 23:26
  Polly Mertens: Amazing, like remarkable feats of you know, endurance and stuff.
• 23:31
  Polly Mertens: And I'm I'm guessing they were out there for way more hours.
• 23:34
  Polly Mertens: So we spent, thankfully, a lot of time in nature, but then a lot of time just like to get to see the towns and hang out together and have nice long dinners, you know, and we weren't setting up tent every night and packing up tent every night.
• 23:46
  Polly Mertens: So there was a lot of just more to experience, right?
• 23:50
  Polly Mertens: And it just was like not having researched everything, it was like there's like this metaphor of like, yeah, just sort of being with it and and allowing for surprises to come along the way.
• 24:00
  Polly Mertens: And one thing that I did note is, you know, so it's 10 days, and going in, my training partner and I, he was like, Okay, I I you know, I want to be able to make it, I want to do all 10 days, and that was like his goal.
• 24:10
  Polly Mertens: And and I hadn't even thought of that.
• 24:12
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I I do want to do that, I think I could do that.
• 24:16
  Polly Mertens: And I let go of being attached to if I didn't do all 10 days, you know, I was like, well, let me see how my body is, right?
• 24:23
  Polly Mertens: Because it wasn't a race, it wasn't like, oh, if you don't show up a day, you're did not finish kind of thing, which actually turned out to be good because by day three, I don't, I there's maybe for another time, but I did notice I think I was so I think the first day was like 4,500 feet of decline, which was insane.
• 24:42
  Polly Mertens: It just felt like I was like, oh my god, my toes are gonna fall off.
• 24:46
  Polly Mertens: It's just I mean 4,500 feet, it takes a couple hours to do that.
• 24:50
  Polly Mertens: Let's just say that.
• 24:51
  Polly Mertens: Just going down, like kind of like going downstairs, going downhill, going downstairs with weight on you.
• 24:56
  Polly Mertens: And by day three, my body was just like, whoa, like my legs, I don't know what happened because I didn't have this experience at Trans Rockies or any other time that I've done multi-day hikes or anything, was when I did Mount Whitney, it was like 5,000, 6,000 feet of down, and I didn't have this either.
• 25:14
  Polly Mertens: But by day three, my legs were just like swollen.
• 25:18
  Polly Mertens: I don't know if it was from the, you know, being in the plane and then the days of hiking and biking or whatever, but day three, I was like, I'm not gonna get to day 10 if I don't take care of myself right now.
• 25:30
  Polly Mertens: And so they were gonna go up again and then come back down, you know, every day was just up and down, up and down, up and down.
• 25:35
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, you know what?
• 25:36
  Polly Mertens: I need to do something different.
• 25:37
  Polly Mertens: And there are three ladies on the tour that were also gonna take a day of rest, and a lot of people do, and I was like, you know, I can take a day of rest.
• 25:44
  Polly Mertens: And as I thought about it, I was like, holy crap, we're in Italy right now.
• 25:48
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I'm in Italy right now.
• 25:51
  Polly Mertens: This is amazing.
• 25:52
  Polly Mertens: And I just started looking at, and what was cool is when I was planning the trip and where to go before the trip started, I ended up going to Annecy.
• 26:01
  Polly Mertens: But the other place that I was thinking of going to was this little town called, well, it's the Valley of Aosta, Aosta Valley, right?
• 26:08
  Polly Mertens: And and it was off of Kulmayur, but you had to like to get there, if you don't walk across the mountain like I did, you'd have to go through this tunnel and there's this train.
• 26:16
  Polly Mertens: I think it was gonna be like a four-hour train ride or something.
• 26:19
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, Yeah, I just don't want to add that much to the trip.
• 26:22
  Polly Mertens: Well, on the day off, I like woke up and I was like, and I had I had I had just looked at where we were.
• 26:28
  Polly Mertens: I was like, Kumayur, look at this.
• 26:29
  Polly Mertens: We're in Italy.
• 26:31
  Polly Mertens: Nice food and things had changed, and Comeyur's so beautiful, you know.
• 26:35
  Polly Mertens: It was like a little Swiss, I'm sorry, the little Italian Alps village, and it was gorgeous.
• 26:40
  Polly Mertens: And I mean bougie, you know, like it was the Vale of Italy for sure, you know, with Gucci and things like that.
• 26:47
  Polly Mertens: I was like, this is beautiful.
• 26:49
  Polly Mertens: And then I started to look at the little village in the Aosta Valley, which I had caught my attention before the trip.
• 26:55
  Polly Mertens: And what I decided to do was in one hour, I could take a little bus, and in an hour I could be in that valley and I could go explore down there.
• 27:04
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, okay, but your goal is to take a day of rest.
• 27:07
  Polly Mertens: I was like, Well, I'm not climbing up mountains, you know, and it's good not to just go from hiking mountains to just vertical, like you do want to move your legs.
• 27:16
  Polly Mertens: So I said, okay, and off I went.
• 27:18
  Polly Mertens: And I went and did this beautiful little excursion by myself, and it was so great because the first three days, the guide knew everything, where we were eating, where we were going, what to hike.
• 27:27
  Polly Mertens: It was just you just show up and like gives you a little debrief in the morning.
• 27:30
  Polly Mertens: Okay, here's where we're gonna go, and we're gonna take these breaks and bring food, or don't bring water, or bring enough water for this, you know.
• 27:37
  Polly Mertens: So it was like everything was given to you.
• 27:39
  Polly Mertens: And then all of a sudden I find myself on this day, and it was like, I have to figure out how to get to this little town.
• 27:44
  Polly Mertens: Oh my god, there's a little conduit.
• 27:46
  Polly Mertens: Maybe I could take that conduit.
• 27:47
  Polly Mertens: How do I get there?
• 27:48
  Polly Mertens: Oh, let me, you know, let me GPS.
• 27:50
  Polly Mertens: Oh, there's a museum.
• 27:50
  Polly Mertens: Oh, there's like all these little things.
• 27:52
  Polly Mertens: Oh my god, there's an underground, it was from the Greek, Greek and Roman times, a a sarcophagus, something like that.
• 28:00
  Polly Mertens: Anyway, it was this old remnant.
• 28:03
  Polly Mertens: I was like, this is once in a lifetime.
• 28:05
  Polly Mertens: Like, you don't get to see this.
• 28:06
  Polly Mertens: That's why I love travel.
• 28:07
  Polly Mertens: It's like this whole building that used to exist in the Roman times was still there and intact, and it was just all lit up underground, underneath the existing city.
• 28:19
  Polly Mertens: So I went and toured that.
• 28:20
  Polly Mertens: I was like, when am I ever gonna see something like this again?
• 28:23
  Polly Mertens: It was amazing.
• 28:24
  Polly Mertens: So I just had this luxurious, relaxed, like walking on flatland.
• 28:29
  Polly Mertens: I did quite, I think I did five miles of walking that day, but it was just kept my body in a comfortable state.
• 28:34
  Polly Mertens: I ate where I wanted to, when I wanted to, didn't eat if I didn't want to eat.
• 28:39
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and it was amazing.
• 28:40
  Polly Mertens: It was amazing.
• 28:41
  Polly Mertens: So, like I needed a break, and instead of my sort, instead of forcing myself, you know, my friend was like, you know, he's going up that mountain.
• 28:48
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I'm gonna take a day of rest.
• 28:50
  Polly Mertens: And I did that.
• 28:50
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, it was restorative and it was an adventure or something I generally love, and it really filled me, right?
• 28:57
  Polly Mertens: And that helped me, I think taking that day of rest, whatever was going on with my legs, that you know, was just it felt like um, you know, fluids just backing up, backing up.
• 29:07
  Polly Mertens: So I did some, you know, inversions, putting my legs up over my head um to help drain it and you know, took it easy.
• 29:13
  Polly Mertens: I think I went in the spa.
• 29:15
  Polly Mertens: No, I don't think I did.
• 29:16
  Polly Mertens: Anyway, just was gentle with myself that day.
• 29:19
  Polly Mertens: No problem.
• 29:20
  Polly Mertens: The next day I was I was back on it.
• 29:22
  Polly Mertens: And I'll tell you the final day.
• 29:24
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, there was 10 days total.
• 29:26
  Polly Mertens: So the final day, the the second to last day, the ninth day, uh, you know, we had just been hike, we had just been hiking and hiking and hiking and hiking.
• 29:35
  Polly Mertens: And I'm not to say that I don't love hiking, but it's a lot, you know, there was a lot of effort, a lot of strenuousness.
• 29:42
  Polly Mertens: And the group was gonna do most of the people, the three ladies were taking a final day of rest on that last day.
• 29:48
  Polly Mertens: And the other ones were gonna go up.
• 29:50
  Polly Mertens: I think it was like a thousand, it wasn't too much, it was a thousand feet of elevation, take this gondola, da-da-da.
• 29:55
  Polly Mertens: And then I was like hearing all of that, and a my legs just doing uphill things.
• 30:00
  Polly Mertens: My legs were like, Yeah, we won't be doing uphill right now.
• 30:04
  Polly Mertens: I was like, Okay, but I love moving and I'm in this beautiful valley.
• 30:09
  Polly Mertens: And what I realized is that original circumnavigation of the TMB, where they were going, they were gonna finish on the last day.
• 30:17
  Polly Mertens: They weren't even gonna finish the TMB, they were just gonna go do this other part in the Chemini Valley.
• 30:22
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, well, that's all well and good, but why would I do that?
• 30:26
  Polly Mertens: I was like, okay, I'm sure it's pretty, and you know, and it it was, and they had an amazing time.
• 30:30
  Polly Mertens: But I was like, could I do something else that's not that right?
• 30:34
  Polly Mertens: And what I realized is I was only about, I don't know, it was took me two and a half hours, three miles or something from the finish line, the original starting point where we where we started.
• 30:46
  Polly Mertens: But I could do it on the flatlands, I could just literally walk from town to town.
• 30:50
  Polly Mertens: It's like walking from one town to the next.
• 30:52
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, I'm gonna enjoy my day at my own pace, my own leisure.
• 30:55
  Polly Mertens: Let me see what's on the map.
• 30:57
  Polly Mertens: Like, what could I explore on my way there?
• 30:59
  Polly Mertens: And there was a detour I had to figure out, and then I went over here, and this was beautiful, and that's when I had that moment.
• 31:04
  Polly Mertens: I'm in front of this beautiful lake, and I'm looking up at Mont Blanc, and it just moved me to tears.
• 31:09
  Polly Mertens: And I'm just like, I wouldn't have had that experience.
• 31:11
  Polly Mertens: So taking my own detours, right?
• 31:14
  Polly Mertens: You know, the you know, my body was saying, no, don't do that.
• 31:18
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, I wanted to complete the route, and that felt really good to me.
• 31:22
  Polly Mertens: And so that's how my day looked.
• 31:24
  Polly Mertens: And then I took a bus back.
• 31:25
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I don't have to walk back, I can take a bus back, all good, you know.
• 31:28
  Polly Mertens: And then I got to just enjoy being a shamani.
• 31:31
  Polly Mertens: So I took the flatter route and it was just absolutely gorgeous, you know, and it was solo and I got some kind of myself, and it was fantastic.
• 31:40
  Polly Mertens: So I didn't need to prove that I could do every mile or every climb or somebody else's version of the trip wasn't my version, right?
• 31:49
  Polly Mertens: And I really listened to what was true for me physically, emotionally, but what would I enjoy most doing, right?
• 31:57
  Polly Mertens: And you know, I want to tell you some now about the three things that I'm taking away.
• 32:01
  Polly Mertens: Well, I wanted to share with you before I do that.
• 32:03
  Polly Mertens: So let me tell you about my original intentions for TMB.
• 32:06
  Polly Mertens: Um, and I shared this on the the pre-podcast, so you can hear more about that.
• 32:10
  Polly Mertens: But my intentions were to bring wonder, bliss, and connect with the magic and beauty, to be fully present, fully alive, to be authentic, speak my truth, be me, fully me, hold nothing back, feel love for humans, planet, and creatures, to have my kitties well loved and cared for, to receive whatever the universe knows is best for me with love and peace in my heart.
• 32:41
  Polly Mertens: I said, I am stepping into a portal, a natural portal that will deliver me to the other side of ego.
• 32:47
  Polly Mertens: Settle into who you truly naturally are.
• 32:50
  Polly Mertens: So as I was reflecting on this, you know, and it's funny, it's like, did I even think about those things while I was out there?
• 32:56
  Polly Mertens: It's like, okay, well, ever could ever, and when you speak it, like that's how what you create.
• 33:00
  Polly Mertens: So yeah, wonder, bliss, connecting with magic and beauty.
• 33:03
  Polly Mertens: Like all of that inherently happened, even if I wasn't like looking at those, you know, those those intentions every day.
• 33:09
  Polly Mertens: But I guess I held them in my heart.
• 33:11
  Polly Mertens: And the things I wanted to share with you of like my takeaways or like what the experience really brought up for me.
• 33:18
  Polly Mertens: So being fully present and fully alive, like being where you are fully.
• 33:25
  Polly Mertens: So that's takeaway one is like be where you are fully.
• 33:29
  Polly Mertens: And I had 16 days where I was genuinely immersed in what I was doing.
• 33:34
  Polly Mertens: You know, I just look up, pay attention, and just taking life and people and my body and you know, my thoughts, taking it all in, the beauty of it, every step.
• 33:46
  Polly Mertens: We spend so much of our lives physically somewhere while mentally being somewhere else, right?
• 33:51
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, I'm gonna be here, like as much as I could presence myself, just re-continually re-presencing myself.
• 33:57
  Polly Mertens: And I intentionally didn't listen to any music or podcast or anything like that on this whole, well, not the whole trip, maybe like boring airports or something like that.
• 34:07
  Polly Mertens: But definitely every step on that trail was me with me, me with God, me with nature, me with my thoughts.
• 34:15
  Polly Mertens: And definitely there's experiences you can't you can't fully capture by a photo.
• 34:21
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and your job is just to be there to receive them, right?
• 34:27
  Polly Mertens: And I think it was really important just to slow down.
• 34:32
  Polly Mertens: And you know, I was I kept noticing, you know, like when I was training, and you you may have this experience in your life too, and I do this outside of training as well.
• 34:41
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, and I talked earlier in the pre-episode about my jinkies, and one of my jinkeys is jinky five, which is I'll call it timelessness or patience and impatience.
• 34:53
  Polly Mertens: So the shadow side is impatience, and the you know, the gift is being patient, right?
• 34:58
  Polly Mertens: And patience is, I think, translating to just like being present, like there's nowhere to go, there's no rush, there's nothing hurrying to, hurrying to get complete.
• 35:08
  Polly Mertens: And if anything, so much of this trip, I wanted to slow it down.
• 35:13
  Polly Mertens: I just wanted it to be forever, right?
• 35:19
  Polly Mertens: So, how can we be more with every moment?
• 35:22
  Polly Mertens: We can't make a 10-day trip into the rest of our life, I don't think.
• 35:26
  Polly Mertens: But I mean, maybe we could create that.
• 35:30
  Polly Mertens: But if I wasn't rushing to get somewhere, if it wasn't, I mean, there were times, I'll tell you though, like so picture steep ass uphill, and I'm like, oh my god.
• 35:39
  Polly Mertens: And they're like, Okay, we're gonna go up to that pass, right?
• 35:42
  Polly Mertens: And you're just they're like pass, you're like, Where?
• 35:44
  Polly Mertens: Like it's so far away, right?
• 35:46
  Polly Mertens: You're like, he's like, okay, you see where that mountain and it curves, and then there's a little rock over there.
• 35:50
  Polly Mertens: Okay, we're gonna be up there.
• 35:51
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, all right, it's just like how long do you think it's gonna be?
• 35:55
  Polly Mertens: 90 minutes, okay.
• 35:57
  Polly Mertens: Just keep your ass moving for 90 minutes, just go, go, go up this hill, and you just get into this little tunnel.
• 36:03
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, don't be in a hurry to get up to the top of that path.
• 36:06
  Polly Mertens: Don't be in a hurry to get to lunch, don't be in a hurry to finish lunch, don't be in a hurry to order, don't be in a hurry to get your dinner, like just be with it, be here.
• 36:17
  Polly Mertens: And the slowing down of all of that made it so precious, such a gift.
• 36:24
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, where in your life are you physically present, but not really there?
• 36:30
  Polly Mertens: Are you like me rushing, rushing to finish that, rushing for a deadline, rushing to see these things that we want to create in our life realized?
• 36:38
  Polly Mertens: Well, it's happening in the now.
• 36:41
  Polly Mertens: Like our life is now.
• 36:43
  Polly Mertens: That's all that there is now and now.
• 36:48
  Polly Mertens: So takeaway number two.
• 36:51
  Polly Mertens: There's a lot that I could say behind this, but I don't want to go too much into the stories and the experiences.
• 36:57
  Polly Mertens: But my my takeaway from myself is, and I'll say it to you, is like, do you?
• 37:03
  Polly Mertens: So it's like just be me.
• 37:05
  Polly Mertens: So one of my intentions was be me, fully me, holding nothing back.
• 37:09
  Polly Mertens: Well, I have a big personality, and I was not holding anything back.
• 37:17
  Polly Mertens: And I continue to see what, and and this personality is not me, it's a personality, right?
• 37:22
  Polly Mertens: But it's what I got to work with, right?
• 37:24
  Polly Mertens: And I am a follower of Ram Das.
• 37:26
  Polly Mertens: And one of his lines that he would say before he passed was you know, he he was a psychotherapist, he did psychedelics, he meditated for decades and did all this spiritual work.
• 37:38
  Polly Mertens: And he would say it at the end of his life when he was in his 70s and whatnot.
• 37:41
  Polly Mertens: He's like, you know, with all of that, I never got rid of one neurosis.
• 37:45
  Polly Mertens: And that translates in our world to like any negative emotions like anxiety or fear or self-pity or whatever neurosity, you know, neurological negativity, if you will.
• 38:00
  Polly Mertens: And you know, I saw some ways of being that I have on this trip with other people and how I interact that I didn't like.
• 38:07
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, I don't like that, you know.
• 38:10
  Polly Mertens: It was more like, yeah, there was one of the things I was gonna say is like this fixer side of me comes out.
• 38:17
  Polly Mertens: So I'd like to live in my bubble that we create our reality and why not create a good one?
• 38:23
  Polly Mertens: Why not create a great life?
• 38:25
  Polly Mertens: Why not feel good as often as you can?
• 38:27
  Polly Mertens: Why not live as if there's magic and beauty and a blessed life, right?
• 38:32
  Polly Mertens: So when people would be around me and talking about not that, let's just say, you know, whether that was their own speaking to themselves, like I would hear them out loud, you know, beating themselves up or telling old negative stories or just not positive energy, right?
• 38:51
  Polly Mertens: I noticed, like, oh my God, I like I want to fix that.
• 38:54
  Polly Mertens: I want to change that, I want to change that about you.
• 38:56
  Polly Mertens: Like, oh, like either like try and be uplifting, like, oh, don't talk to yourself like that, or oh, you know, or just want to get away.
• 39:03
  Polly Mertens: Like, I don't want to hear negative energy, right?
• 39:06
  Polly Mertens: And so that was part one dimension of it was the noticing again this fixer side of me.
• 39:12
  Polly Mertens: And I think that comes from my childhood of having a family where there was a lot of negative energy, whether it was fighting or just negative energy, let's just call it that.
• 39:22
  Polly Mertens: Okay, in a bucket.
• 39:24
  Polly Mertens: And especially from a person in my life where I just want them to feel better, want them to feel better, want to fix them, want to help them not feel down, out, depressed, you know, horrible things, fear, worry, whatever.
• 39:37
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, you know what?
• 39:40
  Polly Mertens: I don't think I'm ever gonna get rid of her.
• 39:42
  Polly Mertens: I think that dimension of me is baked in and be okay with it, like recognizing it.
• 39:48
  Polly Mertens: And then I would say some of what my my lessons for myself and my takeaway is like softening it though, you know, and I've known this.
• 39:55
  Polly Mertens: There's a I just, you know, this trip was just one more example.
• 39:59
  Polly Mertens: It's like, so there's, you know, speak your truth, right?
• 40:01
  Polly Mertens: And then what I've learned is okay, well, my truth isn't always, you know, and especially the way that my personality speaks it, isn't always make me feel good, right?
• 40:12
  Polly Mertens: And so I learned to say, speak my truth with compassion.
• 40:15
  Polly Mertens: So I have compassion for that person, and that's just what they're going through.
• 40:19
  Polly Mertens: They want to go through it, or they're doing the best that they can, or whatever compassion looks like in that moment.
• 40:23
  Polly Mertens: And so my doing me is like continuing to soften the edges.
• 40:27
  Polly Mertens: And Ram Das has said, you know, never got rid of the neuroses, but then he would say they're they're kind of like schmoo now.
• 40:33
  Polly Mertens: They're like, oh, come in for tea, you know, this little side of me, you know, this this fixer side of me.
• 40:40
  Polly Mertens: It's like, oh, there you are, okay.
• 40:42
  Polly Mertens: But not like run by it, just like, just like it, I can't can't help but speak it.
• 40:48
  Polly Mertens: So I don't know, that's a little roundabout way of, but you know, stop trying to hard.
• 40:54
  Polly Mertens: I'm just like, I'm gonna stop trying to be someone else that I'm not, right?
• 40:57
  Polly Mertens: I didn't magically become a different person when I went to the Alps.
• 41:01
  Polly Mertens: You know, I still want autonomy, I still want food a certain way, I still love exploring, I still have my preferences, my habits, my quirks, and these neuroses, right?
• 41:10
  Polly Mertens: And at this point in my life, I'm realizing many of those things probably aren't going anywhere, right?
• 41:15
  Polly Mertens: And maybe they don't need to.
• 41:16
  Polly Mertens: Maybe they don't need to.
• 41:18
  Polly Mertens: So how can I start lessing the impact they have on me and others and instead just recognize them and be with them, be like, oh, there you are, there you are.
• 41:28
  Polly Mertens: You know, the work is less about changing who we are, and maybe it's just that softening the edges, you know, knowing yourself, like know thyself.
• 41:36
  Polly Mertens: And I'm just I I have these facets like you do, like of a diamond, that are who we are, and you know, accommodate yourself, you know, accommodate wherever we are in this journey and you know, stretch ourselves when it matters, right?
• 41:51
  Polly Mertens: Like do your best, you know.
• 41:53
  Polly Mertens: If you know better, do better, but stop making myself wrong, and you stop making yourself wrong for being who you are, right?
• 42:00
  Polly Mertens: So that's one of them.
• 42:02
  Polly Mertens: And my last takeaway is create space for what matters most.
• 42:07
  Polly Mertens: So be fully where you are, do you, and then create space for what really matters most to you.
• 42:13
  Polly Mertens: And so travel and adventure and beauty and nature and hiking and all this stuff.
• 42:19
  Polly Mertens: This is me.
• 42:20
  Polly Mertens: This is this is what matters most to me and a life well lived.
• 42:25
  Polly Mertens: So what that looked like.
• 42:28
  Polly Mertens: I remember starting the trip, and we get in the car going to the airport on the first afternoon.
• 42:34
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, I think it was like, oh, we left in an overnight.
• 42:36
  Polly Mertens: Anyway, afternoon.
• 42:37
  Polly Mertens: And the people I was traveling with had one of them brought his laptop and an iPad.
• 42:42
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, oh my God.
• 42:43
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I didn't bring any of that because of the weight requirement.
• 42:45
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I can't bring any of it.
• 42:47
  Polly Mertens: I was just gonna have my phone.
• 42:48
  Polly Mertens: Wasn't even, you know, I was like, I told all my clients I'm leaving, right?
• 42:52
  Polly Mertens: So I was gone for 16 days, set up my clients as best I could for success before I left.
• 42:58
  Polly Mertens: I told people, I prepared people, took my cats taken care of, my mail house clean or whatever, you know.
• 43:05
  Polly Mertens: And I didn't check email once for 16 days, probably for like 18 days, actually.
• 43:12
  Polly Mertens: And I and I have this thing like if people really want to get a hold of you, they will get a hold of you, right?
• 43:16
  Polly Mertens: And so I got some text, whatnot, you know, go check your email, but I never I never needed to.
• 43:22
  Polly Mertens: I took care of it and I essentially said, I'm unavailable, I'm doing this.
• 43:26
  Polly Mertens: And guess what?
• 43:27
  Polly Mertens: It was okay.
• 43:28
  Polly Mertens: Like I created the space for this.
• 43:33
  Polly Mertens: I've created a life around what I enjoy doing most, what gives me great pleasure and fulfillment.
• 43:39
  Polly Mertens: And life works that way, right?
• 43:42
  Polly Mertens: Doesn't have to look this way for you or whatever, but I just want to say, like, create space, create a life.
• 43:48
  Polly Mertens: What matters most to you?
• 43:52
  Polly Mertens: And I'm proud to say, like, nothing broke, you know, my client survived, my business survived, the world kept spinning, you know?
• 43:59
  Polly Mertens: And I got to be completely immersed in one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life.
• 44:06
  Polly Mertens: You know, and sometimes we say, I don't, I don't have time for that, right?
• 44:09
  Polly Mertens: Or I'll do that someday, or yeah, wouldn't that be nice?
• 44:12
  Polly Mertens: Or when blank happens, right?
• 44:15
  Polly Mertens: But maybe the question is, you know, what would I have to put in place to make room for?
• 44:20
  Polly Mertens: Like if I really wanted to realize that.
• 44:21
  Polly Mertens: And I would say, like, if you have your dreams and they feel like they're out there like 10 years away, like shrink them, like move the timeline up, like pulling a rug underneath you.
• 44:31
  Polly Mertens: Like, I'm just gonna like, like if it was on a chest, a heavy chest on a rug, and it's like, I'm just gonna pull that chest to me.
• 44:38
  Polly Mertens: Like, I'm just gonna bring that life that I want closer to me.
• 44:41
  Polly Mertens: What would I have to put into place to make room for it?
• 44:43
  Polly Mertens: You know, if something truly matters to you, you may have to deliberately protect the space for it, you know.
• 44:49
  Polly Mertens: And the space doesn't usually just appear, right?
• 44:52
  Polly Mertens: It's us creating all of this.
• 44:54
  Polly Mertens: So what I want you to take away with is you don't have to hike around Mont Blanc.
• 44:59
  Polly Mertens: I I hope you do.
• 45:00
  Polly Mertens: God, I have not spoken enough of the beauty and the photos.
• 45:05
  Polly Mertens: And by the way, I did, I'm not great at putting everything of my life on social media, amen.
• 45:11
  Polly Mertens: But I did put all 10 days, a, because one of the things I'm realizing is social media is a great reminder of like, oh, here's where you were 10 years ago.
• 45:18
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, in 10 years, I want to remember that I was on Mont Blanc.
• 45:22
  Polly Mertens: So if you want to see that 10 days at Get Busy Thriving is my my avatar, my handle on social.
• 45:30
  Polly Mertens: So your version might be traveling somewhere where you've always wanted to go.
• 45:33
  Polly Mertens: Maybe that's true for you, like it is for me.
• 45:35
  Polly Mertens: Maybe it's taking a month off.
• 45:37
  Polly Mertens: Maybe it's learning something, maybe it's creating something, spending time with someone you love, right?
• 45:42
  Polly Mertens: Or finally doing the thing you've always said someday.
• 45:45
  Polly Mertens: What is that?
• 45:46
  Polly Mertens: What is that for you?
• 45:49
  Polly Mertens: Know what matters to you.
• 45:52
  Polly Mertens: Like be honest with yourself.
• 45:53
  Polly Mertens: Know what matters to you.
• 45:56
  Polly Mertens: Make room for it.
• 45:57
  Polly Mertens: And then when you get there, actually be there.
• 46:01
  Polly Mertens: The one thing, ask yourself, you know, what's one experience that that I keep saying that I want to have?
• 46:10
  Polly Mertens: What would I need to put in place to actually make it happen?
• 46:12
  Polly Mertens: What would be that one thing for you?
• 46:15
  Polly Mertens: Damn it, what's what's your TMB?
• 46:18
  Polly Mertens: What's your once-in-a-lifetime experience, right?
• 46:21
  Polly Mertens: And then do something this week to take it out of someday land and put it into like now, like just one small step.
• 46:28
  Polly Mertens: What's one thing you could do?
• 46:29
  Polly Mertens: Could you research something?
• 46:30
  Polly Mertens: Could you buy a ticket?
• 46:32
  Polly Mertens: Could you say yes to something?
• 46:33
  Polly Mertens: Could you make a phone call and invite someone to go with you?
• 46:36
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 46:37
  Polly Mertens: I never I did an episode.
• 46:39
  Polly Mertens: This was probably two years ago.
• 46:40
  Polly Mertens: Sam and I did an episode called Epic List, right?
• 46:42
  Polly Mertens: So, like, not just having a bucket list, but your fucking epic list.
• 46:46
  Polly Mertens: Like, I hope you have an epic list, right?
• 46:48
  Polly Mertens: And so around this event, these buzzing, because I'm back, I was back on social.
• 46:52
  Polly Mertens: So friends were contacting me and pinging me and texting me and all this stuff.
• 46:56
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, Yeah, it's epic, it's amazing.
• 46:58
  Polly Mertens: And I have people who want to get up to epic stuff in the next few years with me.
• 47:02
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, it's amazing.
• 47:04
  Polly Mertens: The friends that I have, the life that I have, that we get to live this way.
• 47:08
  Polly Mertens: So, like, immerse yourself, say yes to these things, do what matters most to you.
• 47:13
  Polly Mertens: There is no guarantee of a future, so get busy, get busy, thriving.
• 47:22
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 47:25
  Polly Mertens: All right, my dears, my lovelies.
• 47:27
  Polly Mertens: It's great to share this with you if you listen to the whole thing.
• 47:30
  Polly Mertens: God bless you.
• 47:32
  Polly Mertens: Remember how your life feels is more important than how it looks.
• 47:37
  Polly Mertens: And every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.
• 47:41
  Polly Mertens: Love you guys.