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WALK DOWN A DIFFERENT STREET · The Karen Kenney Show

0:01
Hey you guys, welcome to the Karen Kenney show. This is the
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last episode of 2025 which is just crazy. I am actually kind
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of excited though that this year is ending.
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Please tell me I'm not the only one. I am ready to put 2025 in
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my rear view mirror. Wicked excited about that. Okay, look
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at I am so jazzed about this episode today, and I'm going to
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tell you a little bit about it. We're going to dive right in.
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And I also just want to say thank you so much for being here
0:41
and spending a little bit of time. Little bit of time with
0:43
me. If you're a regular listener, if you're one of my
0:46
loyal listeners, thank you so much. I just couldn't do it
0:49
without you. And if you're new here, welcome. I'm so happy
0:52
you're here. Okay, so this episode, I'm calling it walking
0:57
down another street. So really see this as an invitation for us
1:01
to walk down another street together. Okay, so I'm going to
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share with you this poem, right? And the first time I ever heard
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this poem was, I think I was, I know I was watching Wayne Dyer.
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Wayne Dyer was the one who introduced me to this. But I
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don't know if it was on a PBS special. You'd always be on the
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PBS or it was like some Hay House, I can do it event. I
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don't know what it was, but I remember it was him, and it's a
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really simple piece, and it's really simple, but it's really
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powerful, and it deeply landed in me, and I wanted to share it
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with you. Now, some of you may have already heard this sucker
1:45
if you haven't, buckle up. Enjoy it if you have. Trust me,
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repetition is the mother of all learning, and it never hurts to
1:56
hear something smarty pants twice, you know what I mean. So
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this poem is called autobiography in five short
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chapters, and it was written by a friend of Wayne's, a woman
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named Portia Nelson. And Portia was a singer, she was a
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songwriter, she was an author, she was an actor. And this poem,
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autobiography in five short chapters. Comes from her book.
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There's a hole in my sidewalk the romance of self discovery.
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So that already gives you a little sneak peek into this.
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Now, there's a reason, of course, why I'm sharing this
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with you. So stay with me. It's bits. It'll be it'll be
2:35
beneficial. Okay, so this part made me laugh. So Portia was
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attending some sort of a seminar, right? And all the
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attendees were asked to write down on a five by seven piece of
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paper or a five by seven card their autobiography. But they
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could only write their autobiography in five chapters,
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and Wayne said that they were only allowed to use five by
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seven. They were only allowed to use five by seven cards to help
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people, basically keep it short. And when I think about this, it
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makes me laugh so hard, because we all know how we all love to
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get up into our stories and just go on and on and on about all
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the things that have happened, and then this happened and this.
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And look, I'm a storyteller. I love to tell a good story, but
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we can all be a little like attached to those stories,
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right? So the people running the seminar were smart, and they
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were like, five by seven. I'm surprised they didn't say four
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by six. Okay, so here is the poem autobiography in five short
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chapters. And listen to this chapter one, I walk down the
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street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am
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lost. I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find
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a way out. Chapter Two, I walk down the street. There is a deep
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hole in the sidewalk. I pretend that I don't see it. I fall in
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again. I can't believe I am in this same place, but it isn't my
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fault. It still takes a long time to get out. Chapter Three,
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I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the
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sidewalk. I see it. It is there. I still fall in. It's a habit,
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but my eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I
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get out immediately. Chapter Four, I walk down the same
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street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.
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Chapter Five, I walk down another street this and now it's
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so simple, it's so good, it's so smart. Oh my god. So let's break
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this sucker down. The hot beat of this poem, the hot beat of
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this message is she's basically using this simple analogy of a
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sidewalk with a hole in it, right. But it's demonstrating
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and describing these different stages of our own unconscious
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behavior, and then how the unconscious behavior, over time,
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if we're willing, right, shifts to realization, and then it
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shifts again, ultimately, to our conscious choice, where our
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power lies. And I love this. So if we look at the progressions
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of the chapters in the first in the first chapter, she falls in,
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or, let's just say, you and I right these patterns of
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behaviors that we do, these habits, these conditioned these
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conditioned patterns and habits and ways of being and thinking
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and speaking and the choices we make, all of it right? And this
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is very common also, I have no doubt, and I know that this,
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this poem, has been shared many, many, many times in recovery
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circles and in 12 step programs. And it makes sense, because it's
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really also like, it's like the breakdown of addiction. But this
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is also can be applied to any of our unconscious behaviors, our
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patterns, our habits, our bullshit, basically, right? So
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chapter one, she's talking about, you know, she falls in,
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feels lost, helpless and clueless, and you think it's not
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your fault. So you do the thing, the hole. You don't even see it.
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You fall in. You're stuck, you're helpless, you're
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hopeless. You don't think it's your fault, okay? Chapter Two,
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you fall in again. You're pretending you didn't see the
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same damn hole that you already fell in before. But you're still
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insisting that it isn't your fault, even though you're here
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again. You're still insisting it's not your fault, right?
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Chapter Three, you see the hole, and you fall in again out of
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habit. Oh, my God. How many times have we done this? All of
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us, all of us. But this time, this is where it's different.
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You realize it's your fault, and you've been in and out of this
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hole so many times. Now you know how to get out. You get out of
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it immediately, right? Chapter Four, you walk around the hole.
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Just, you just walk around that sucker, right? Fantastic.
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Chapter Five, this is when we've really made some progress, and
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this is when we walk down a whole damn different street,
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like, How fantastic is that, right? And it makes me think
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about A Course in Miracles, because, of course in miracles
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talks about how, you know, first of all, of course in miracles
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always talks about how there's but two emotions that we have,
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right? One, we were born with love. One, we learned here in
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the human experience, fear. Okay? There's two of them.
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There's love and fear. Like, that's it all the other things,
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they fall underneath this category, right? So, of course,
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in miracles, kind of thinks of everything in the in these two,
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these two things, they would say that only love is real, like
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fear is a figment of our own imagination. These
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hallucinations, this this creation of the ego, mind,
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believing it's separate from its source, and it creates all of
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it, the sickness, the guilt, the suffering, the separation, the
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specialness, like all the bullshit, right? That's the
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fear. Only thing that's really real is capital L, love. Okay,
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so A Course in Miracles talks about how we take detours into
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fear all the time. So you know, when you're driving down the
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highway and all of a sudden you find out, like, you you've taken
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the wrong exit. I'm always like, this is like, when you're you're
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heading towards love, like you're really trying to do it.
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You're really trying to, like, grow and be present and be more
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loving and compassionate and kind and kind of not be a
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selfish dick, you know, like you're trying to really work on
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yourself. But we do. We take these detours into fear. I
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sometimes talk about it like we go on the wrong side of the
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duplex. I do this whole analogy with people in the nest, right?
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I talk about this. So on one side you have all the fear
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behaviors. On the other side is where, where love is, where
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spirit is, right? So of course, Miracle says we take these
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detours into fear. And I would always say to people, like, when
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you realize, when you realize you've taken a detour into fear,
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that is not the time to keep going. That is not the time to
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then, like, either, like, find a campsite where you set up camp
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and you set up your tent and you build a fire and you pack your
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ass there. Or it's not the time to keep driving and see if
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there's any houses you can buy. Like, we're not here to buy real
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estate when we when we realize, oh, detail, detour into fear.
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Now it's okay. I always say, like, if you realize you've
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taken a detour into fear and you need to, just like, find a rest
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stop for a moment. You need to, like, get your bearings and have
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a little snack and take a rest. Best, right? Like, that's fine,
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that's okay, right? As soon as you get your bearings, you
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better bang a UE, like, lickety split, like, you recognize it.
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And this is the whole thing, right?
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Ken wopnick, who was a really great Course in Miracles,
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teacher, he used to say that, you know you're making progress
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on the spiritual path, not when you like never take a detour
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into fear again. When you realize you have left love, you
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have left your right mind, and you've gone into crazy town,
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you've gone into the realm of fear. Because it's not that you
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never take these detours into fear anymore. It's how quickly
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you realize you've done it. That's how we know we're making
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progress. And it kind of points right to what she's saying here.
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And chapter four and chapter five of her poem, she's like,
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you start to walk around the hole, or eventually you just
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start to walk down a whole different street. And this is
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the thing that I'm talking about for us in 2026 I really would
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love to invite you so let's all walk down a different street
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together, because I think 2025, has been chock full of fear and
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dissonance and separation and all of this, like infighting.
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Imagine if, like, we're all one big family, and there has just
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been shit ton of craziness, of hate, of just just separation
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and all of it. Now, look, we can't control what other people
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out there are doing. All we can control is ourselves in the
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choices that we're making. Right we can walk around the hole. We
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can walk down a whole different street. We can see the whole. We
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can warn other people about the hole. We can put up a little
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sign that says, Don't go in the hole, right? I mean, we can't
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save people from themselves. Some people are going to insist
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on going in the hole. And I made some notes here, you know, I
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said, here's the thing though about this poem, because chapter
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four and chapter five, right? Walk around the hole, or go down
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a different street, they sound great. They sound great. But
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here's the thing, let's be real about human behavior. Let's be
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real about how deeply patterned, how deeply ingrained these
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habits and conditioning goes. Right? Here's the thing,
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sometimes it takes us a while to recognize that there is a hole.
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Sometimes, it takes us a while right to even recognize that
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there's even a fucking hole. Sometimes, right, it takes us a
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while to recognize that we're in the hole. We don't even know
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we're in the hole because we've normalized our behaviors. We've
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normalized feeling bad. We've normalized and familiarized our
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suffering. So we just kind of go like, Oh, this is just how it
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is. Right. Remember that Bruce coat? I always talk about the
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Bruce Hornsby song, that's just the way it is, right. Some
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things will never change. You know the lyrics to that song,
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and he says, ah, but don't you believe them? Right? Don't you
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believe them, we are all capable of change. I always say, as long
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as I am alive, conscious, breathing and aware, I am going
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to be able to create transformation and change. Okay?
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But number one, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize
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we're in the hole, that there is a hole. Sometimes we don't want
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to take responsibility that we're in the hole, right,
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because we're getting something from being hopeless and helpless
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and behaving right, like a victim, right? Sometimes we're
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getting some sort of subconscious payoff, or
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sometimes we're getting like, an external right, we get
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attention, or we get like, Oh, poor you, or let me help you. Or
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you manipulate people, and they do shit for you, and it's never
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your fault, and you got everybody running around, right,
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like your little minions, right? So sometimes we don't want to
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take responsibility for it, because we were getting some
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positive intention we have, you know, and that's what the
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subconscious does. It has a positive intention, but it often
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is wreaking habit. Okay? Number three, sometimes we get out of
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the hole, but we fall right back in, like a trust, fall right? We
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get out, fall right back in, like a few moments later. God
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bless us. All right, sometimes we don't know that it's okay to
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walk around the hole, because maybe nobody else in your family
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has ever walked around the hole. Maybe everybody just insists
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that you get in, right? Get into that, you know, that old analogy
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I hate. So how so many analogies and metaphors use, like
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suffering towards animals to depict them, right? When you
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talk about like the crabs or the frogs and the boiling water,
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which I hate, right? But it's this idea of like, you know, the
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crabs will try to pull the other ones back down into the pot or
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whatever. Sometimes, your family members don't know that there's
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a better way. They don't know that you can walk around the
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hole. Sometimes they don't want you to walk around the hole
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because they're more comfortable with you being small. They don't
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want you to get out. They don't want you to like, you know,
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quote, unquote, get too big for your brick. Or just shine too
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bright, or, who do you think you are? Right? So you may not know.
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You might have to be the pattern breaker. You might have to be
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the spell breaker in your family, right? You might have to
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be the first one to say, hey, there's a fucking hole here, and
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I'm gonna walk around it. You don't have to like it. I'm going
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around the hole. Okay? And then here's the the last one.
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Sometimes that chapter five right, walk down a whole
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different street. But here's the thing, some of us don't even
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know that there's a different street. We only know that one
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street. We don't even know that another street is available to
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us depending on where you've gone and maybe how many books
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you've read, or what you've been exposed to, or what your you
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know, economic situation has allowed, and this is why I
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always say about libraries like library cards, men are free and
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they are the portal. They are the thing. They give the poor
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kids a leg up because it puts us on an even playing field. When
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you can get your mind into a place where there's books to
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read, not everybody can read. I get that. What I'm saying is, is
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that sometimes, right, I'm not making excuses. These five
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things are just sometimes realities in people's lives. But
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here's the thing one, if you can hear the sound of my voice, you
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now know about the hole. No more excuses. And if you need help
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getting out of the hole, or realizing there's a whole, or
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walking around or getting better at taking a different street.
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This is, this is the different ways that people work with me,
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in the nest, my spiritual mentoring group, program, my
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little community that's amazing, or one to one work or whatever,
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right? Some people come to work with me, you know, to do more,
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like yoga classes or workshops or tie yoga body work or
16:41
assisted stretching, or whatever I do all kinds of stuff. Some
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people just listen to the podcast right. Here you are.
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Thank you so much. But here's the thing I want to say, right
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when we recognize that we are stuck in our habits and our
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patterns, I'm tapping my forehead right now. This message
16:57
is for me also. PS, I do this podcast for my ears to hear it
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first, because I can be kind of a knucklehead, right? When we
17:06
recognize we're stuck. I'm tapping on my forehead like I'm
17:08
doing EFT when we recognize we're stuck in our habits and
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patterns and conditioning. Right? Remember this poem,
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remember our power, the power that is available to us. Right?
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Personal choice is a power, the grace of the wisdom that is
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contained here, right? I'm dropping some spiritual bread
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crumbs right now for you, as you're tiptoeing past Christmas
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and Hanukkah, right, and Kwanzaa, all those things into
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the new year, we are, we are going to walk down another
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street, hopefully together, I would love that, right? So
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here's the thing, there's power available to us in personal
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choice. There's grace in this wisdom, and there is deep
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transformation in this self development and personal growth
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work, in the spiritual work, right? But I kind of think
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about, you know, as humans, like the four buckets or the four
18:00
table legs, right? You have the mental, the emotional, the
18:03
physical and the spiritual. And we want to be able, and it's
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really hard. I'm gonna do a whole podcast about balance in
18:10
2026 but we do want that table to be somewhat balanced. You
18:15
ever try to eat on the table, it's not balanced. It's not
18:18
soothing at all. It's like GA gunk gunk, GA gunk gunk, right?
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Every time you move in your water. Okay? The other thing I
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loved about this poem is it illustrates how we need
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awareness to be able to change the destructive patterns in the
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first place, right, once we become aware of them. And I do a
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whole podcast on this way back in the day, the 4c and the four
18:41
A's of lasting change, right? So once we have awareness, we can
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start to work on those destructive patterns, and
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gradually, if we're willing to pay attention, if we're willing
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to stay awake, if we're willing to take responsibility, right,
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then we can progress from blindly falling in that hole
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again and again and again, right? We can get out of those
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same holes to eventually choosing a whole different path,
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a whole new path. Let's just all double Amen hands to that, the
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realization that there is a better way. When A Course in
19:18
Miracles says this great line, right? And it says, trials. This
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is what this is describing. It's a trial. You keep doing the same
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thing. And of course, Miracle says this, trials are but
19:30
lessons right? Trials are but lessons learned. So where you
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it's saying, so where you used to do these old patterns and
19:39
habits, you no longer have to do them. Right. Trials are but
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lessons presented once again, right for where before you made
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this old choice, right that the wise self inside of you call it
19:55
the voice for God, Holy Spirit, spirit, call it Jesus, call.
20:00
Your intuition, your gut instinct, the inner teacher, I
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don't care what you call it, but there's something inside of you
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that calls to you and says, my brother, my sister, my person,
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choose again.
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Trials are but lessons failed to learn presented once again. So
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where before you made a choice, right? The Christ in you calls
20:19
to you, the self in you calls you the smarty pants, the divine
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intelligence in you calls to you and says, my brother, my sister,
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choose again. And that's what this poem is all about. You can
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choose to walk down a whole different street, and I would
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love to walk along beside you as we do it. So here's to 2026
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Here's to us going in. I might be making a few changes, I don't
20:44
know, to the podcast, cover art. I got a bunch of things. I got a
20:47
I'm always like hatching a plan. I always got my I'm always up to
20:52
shenanigans, right? So I got some cool things going on in
20:55
January. I'm going to be doing some yoga classes on Monday
20:59
nights just in January at the Pembroke Pines Country Club,
21:03
which I'm wicked excited about. They have a big, beautiful room
21:06
and a fireplace. It's going to be yoga by the fire. And this
21:08
is, this is, I'm saying all of this in 2025 if you're
21:11
listening. This is for January 2026 and that last Monday of the
21:15
month, my sweetie and I are going to be doing live music and
21:18
yoga by the fire. That's going to be wicked cool. I have some
21:21
Tuesday night yoga classes coming up, maybe some Thursday
21:23
night yoga classes coming up. And I'm doing Thai Yoga,
21:26
assisted stretching, and, of course, always spiritual
21:28
mentoring and coaching, hot to hot days, all kinds of stuff.
21:31
You can find out all about it. Karen kenney.com, just spell my
21:35
last name right, and you're good to go, k, e, n, n, e, y, and
21:40
that's it, just this. Keep your eyes peeled, right. Stick
21:43
around. Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. I love
21:47
you, I care about you, and I hope you just have the most
21:51
fantastic holiday season with you, with you and yours, your
21:55
family, with your friends, whoever you spend it with, if
21:58
you spend it alone, right by choice, enjoy your company. If
22:02
you don't spend it alone by choice, maybe reach out. Maybe
22:06
there's some folks around, a neighbor, a friend, a cousin, a
22:10
somebody, a gathering somewhere. Go to a yoga class, right? But
22:14
Be around people if you're feeling a little lonely, if
22:16
you're feeling like you want to get a little connected, Okay,
22:19
listen to the podcast. You can always pop my voice into your
22:22
ear holes in your head. So Alright, you guys, look 2025 is
22:28
going to be behind us before we know it, welcoming in 2026 and
22:32
again. Always think you can find these old, these old, what are
22:39
these things called podcast episodes that I did on what we
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can is just a very simple thing to be thinking about in 2026 as
22:45
well. Ask yourself this, these questions, what do you want to
22:49
let go of? Right? I always say, think of it like this. What do
22:53
you want to let go? What are you going to keep? Right? It's
22:57
sticking around. What do you want to let go of? And what do
22:59
you want to grow? What do you want more of? What do you want
23:01
less of? Get rid of it. What do you want more of? Bring it in.
23:04
What do you want to keep and expand? Right? So maybe that'll
23:08
be helpful for you. Okay, look wherever you go. Last time,
23:10
signing off in 2025 wherever you go. May you leave the animals
23:15
and yourself and the other humans and the environment and
23:18
the planet better than how you found it wherever you go, may
23:21
you and your energy, your presence and your love be a
23:26
blessing. Bye, you.