00:00:13
Speaker 1: Cass up little food for yourself life. Oh it's pretty bad. Hey, it's pretty beautiful. Beautiful for that for a little mouth exciting because said he You're kicking with full thing with Amy Brown.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: Happy Thursday, Amy here, And for this week's episode, I'm going to give you the first thing, which will be just me talking about an experience that I literally had today. I got a mammogram last week and then I was called back for a second screening, which then led to an ultrasound. It was this whole thing that went onto my head. It was the most stressful two hours ever. So I'm just going to talk through some of those feelings and some of you may relate, or maybe some of you are putting off something. Maybe it's not an ammig, maybe it's just you know, your obgy in checkup or some other doctors of what we need to have, or maybe just some hard conversation you need to have with someone. Whatever you're putting off, don't put it off. But I'm also going to give you a little taste of some of the other podcasts that are on my network for the second, third, and fourth thing. And I want to do that because one maybe you haven't heard of them, and two maybe even meaning to check them out and you just really haven't had time. And then three because they have some awesome insights to offer. And I love the women who host these podcasts. So with all that said, let's get into it.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: First.
00:01:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am definitely someone who well, because my mom had cancer and my dad had cancer, I sometimes have thoughts, well, I'm going to get cancer. But then I don't want to have those thoughts because I feel like if I have those thoughts, then I'm, you know, inviting the cancer. And I know that it's it's not necessarily linked to that for sure, but I do think our thoughts have a lot to do with how our body responds to stress. And if I'm constantly stressed that I'm gonna get cancer, well you see where I'm going with that. But breast cancer does not run in my family, so I've never had much concern for that. And I got a mammogram last week. I thought everything was fine, and then I got a letter in the mail saying that I had some dense tissue. So I booked an appointment to go in a week later, which was today, and I kind of was like, oh, dense tissue. I googled it. It's very common, nothing really to worry about. They just want to be extra cautious. So I'm on the phone. When I'm there, I've got my coffee. I'm just like like, let's go get this done. Chop chop. And the woman looked at me and she said, do you know why you're here? And I said, yeah, dence tissue and she said, yeah, no, we found a spot in your left breast that wasn't there year ago. And instantly my whole demeanor change, like I honestly feel it in my body right now, even though I'm letting you know right now before I get into the story, I am okay. I don't think I would be here like la la la telling you the story if I had gotten different results today, for sure. But I literally just felt into my body like how I felt the minute she looked at me with a very serious face like oh no, no, you're here for a very specific reason. And then she pulled up my scans from last week and showed me this spot on my left breast that wasn't there a year ago, and she said, the radiologist wants to get new scans and then if he's satisfied you can go. If he's not, then we're going to need to get an ultrasound, but you will have results before you leave here today. You're not going to leave here without knowing if you know you need more tests done or if you're in the So I was like, okay. Meanwhile, I am like trying to hold back the tears because again, my mind just starts racing. Well, I knew this was going to happen. My mom had it although she had anal cancer. My dad had it although he had like throat cancer, maybe tongue as well. Neither one of them had breast cancer. But still now it's in my head and I'm sitting here thinking about what my life is going to be, Like, how am I going to tell my kids? What's what? You know? I just spiral. Meanwhile, I'm like, don't cry, don't cry, I don't cry, And she's like, could you go ahead, and just like yeah, turn that way and I'm gonna smush this down. She's like is that too tight? Is that okay? Tell me if it's too tight, and like it's not too tight. Honestly, lady, I can't feel anything you're doing to me because my body is here. But my mind is not here. My mind is in the future living with cancer and how I'm gonna deal with it, but also how I'm going to beat it and how it's going to be awesome because I'm not going to let this defeat me, and I will find out what is possible from that and I will get to the bottom of what's important and in life. And I start asking myself all these deep questions because you know clearly I have cancer now. Then she does the skanch said go sit outside, We'll come talk to you in ten minutes, and I'm like, okay, trying to hold back the tears. Trying to hold back the tears. I send my sister a text and I'm like okay, And then they come out He's not satisfied. We need you to go do an ultrasound and I'm like, yep, m hm, I knew it. I got cancer. The whole time she's doing the ultrasound, the story is building. I've already had my breasts removed in my head, and then I'm like, am I going to get implants? Or am I not? Have I lost my hair? It's crazy what our minds will do. I sit there for ten minutes after that, and she comes in and says, Okay, you're all clear. Just make sure you do your self exams throughout the year and come back next year for your yearly appointment. And then I was just sent on my way and it was just this emotional roller coaster of I got there kind of easy breezy with my coffee, ain't no thing dense tissue, and then boom, went into almost two hours of stress and literally my body feeling as though I now have this disease, and I'm super emotional and I'm holding back the tears, and then well, lah, I just walked out of there, easy breezy again and got in my car and drove away, like okay, Well that was interesting, and it just got me thinking of things sometimes we avoid because we're nervous, because honestly, that experience was so taxing on me that I'm like, well, I don't want to go back next year for my scan. I mean, obviously, I know I want to go because I want to be as proactive as possible, and I don't want to take advantage of the fact that I even have access to care like this, and there's some people in the world that don't, so I need to go, but I also don't want to feel all those emotions again and go through that. And there was a handful of years where I didn't go to the gynecologist for similar reasons, and I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe it was tied into my mom's cancer, maybe not, I don't know. I just avoided it. I didn't want to know what was going on with me, and I didn't think it was important to go, and really it was, because really the key is early detection. If you can find something early, then you're likely good. And then it got me curious about genetic testing because I've never had that done, and I was reading this whole article about the genetic tests that are available for certain types of cancers. And this is just a list. There might be more, but this is what I found. Breast cancer, ovarian colon, thyroid, prostate, pancreatic melanoma. My mom also had that, sarcoma, kidney cancer, stomach cancer, so there are some potential pitfalls with genetic tests. I did read that because if the test reveals no known genetic cancer len, then that puts you back to square one in terms of figuring out why a cancer is common in your family. And if the test does confirm that the presence of an abnormal gene is there, that doesn't automatically mean that something bad is going to happen. And in some cases the gene creates only a slightly higher risk, like slightly higher I saw. The American Cancer Society said that most cancers are not passed down through families. The number of inherited cancer cases is only five to ten percent. Now the story is different if your parents had breast cancer or any other hereditary cancer, So definitely do your own research. I just wanted to share with you my very personal experience and how I am not going to put off my test next year, even though it was highly stressful. And I'm not going to put off my obgian appointments. And if you have anything that you've been avoiding, book the appointment. Maybe you also have a hard conversation you have been avoiding and that is building up stress in your body, or you're not happy with certain things in your life and you know that there needs to be a change, but you keep putting it off. Body keeps the score. Stress leads to inflammation, and inflammation leads to disease, and that doesn't necessarily mean cancer, but certain ailments are going to show up if we're not taking care of ourselves and doing the hard things, which again could either be going to that appointment, or having a tough conversation, or making a major life change or whatever it is that you need to do to take care of you. That was really what I was inspired to get on here and share with you that yes, it's natural to have fear around some of these things, but we're going to be so happy that we did the hard thing, got it over with so we know the results. And then at the end of the day, if we find out something that we didn't want to hear, if we were proactive and we catch something early, then the odds are in our favor, which makes me the Hunger Games. But it's a whole nother conversation. Sometimes honestly, I just feel like I'm living in the Hunger Games. That school pickup line, I mean, that is fight to the death. That stresses me out. And my daughter, she actually just walked in here because she heard me talk about the genetic testing, and she's over here whispering to me, I want to get genetic tests done, which makes sense because she was adopted and she doesn't know a lot of her family history. Who knows. Maybe we'll figure out some tests that we can do just so we can have more information. The more you know. But I don't want her living in fear, and I don't want to live in fear because cancer is definitely a common disease and we all likely know someone who has had it. And again I speak as someone who's had parents that had cancer, and it raises a different set of concerns within me, and I'm sure you if you're in a similar situation. And I fear that my risk of cancer is higher, but I don't want to live with that fear because again, I don't think what my parents had is a hereditary thing, and the likelihood of me getting it is very low. I want to live as though I'm not going to get it, and I don't want to live in fear. But I do want to be prepared and I do want to be proactive. So hopefully at least one of you needed to hear this encouragement. Second thing, right, So, Kat Defada answers a question from a listener every Wednesday on her Unique Therapy podcast, and on her episode that actually went up yesterday, she answers an interesting question about being fulfilled in your job.
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Speaker 3: Here it is, I am working in a profession that I have not always hated, but for the past two to four years, I've started to dread. I don't see this as I went into the wrong field, but that it has simply run its course in my life. I'm now starting a master's program in an unrelated field to leave this profession. It will take me about twenty months to complete the program. Unfortunately, I'm the breadwinner and my home so I can't just take any other job for the next two years. We rely on my income. What advice can you give me for surviving my current profession until then? Changing jobs will not help me.
00:12:01
Speaker 4: I know this.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: I left a job two years ago hoping a new environment would help, but it did not. Okay, So I really like this question and I think it's a great question, And it also sounds like this person is in a pretty healthy place. You're not shaming yourself for choosing the wrong thing or blaming your workplace environment. You're just noticing that you're in need of a change and the current job you had as run its course, and it's okay to change. And I love that I feel like so many people stay in the same profession or avenue in their whole lives because.
00:12:32
Speaker 4: They feel trapped.
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Speaker 3: And a lot of times we feel trapped because we believe it's too late to start, or we've got start over, or we have put too much effort into what we're in.
00:12:41
Speaker 4: We don't want that to go to waste.
00:12:43
Speaker 3: And while I do think it's super hard to somewhat start over in a career, I also don't think it's impossible.
00:12:50
Speaker 4: So I'm already really.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: Excited for you that you're doing this, and it sounds like you're on the right track. You have something to look forward to, a way out of your current job and the current dread you're feeling, and oftentimes knowing there's.
00:13:04
Speaker 4: A way out and knowing that there is an.
00:13:06
Speaker 3: End date can alone alleviate some of that dread or just like achiness of your current environment. And so I hope that that has already kind of helped a little bit, knowing that you're doing something so this is not just a forever thing.
00:13:21
Speaker 4: I also think it is.
00:13:22
Speaker 3: Super super helpful to create a life outside of work, and to make that life outside of work super important. For a lot of people, work does not equal passion, and I feel like I talk about that quite often on here. We live in a society where it feels like we have to be so passionate and love our jobs and be obsessed with working and want to talk about it all the time. It's like a part of our personality. And a lot of people don't have passion when it comes to their jobs.
00:13:52
Speaker 4: And I really think that's okay.
00:13:54
Speaker 3: I think it's more than okay, And I think it's really unfair to say that you can't live a fulfilling life unless you love your job. I personally think you can. And this brings me back to me talking about my vacation. The thing I was looking forward to the most when thinking about getting back home again, like I said, wasn't jumping back into work. It was jumping back into my routine, my habits, the people that I like to see on a regular basis, things like that, and the smaller things in my life, not this thing that I spend doing eight to ten hours a day. The smaller things in my life are my favorite parts of my life. Making my favorite meal of the week, sleeping in my own cozy bed, going to the grocery store with Patrick, I really enjoy those little things, and I want to encourage you to make sure you are packing in a lot of small little things that might seem mundane but also bring you a lot of joy that you might just be like, not even realizing bring you a.
00:14:54
Speaker 4: Lot of joy.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: I think we can spend way too much time making work the that our lives revolve around. I mean, we spend what eight to ten hours their day. Sometimes people spend more, and then we spend more time obsessing about it, talking about it, planning around it. It's just this it again, like I said earlier, becomes like our personality, part of our personality, and I don't think that it needs to be.
00:15:22
Speaker 4: That way at all.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: If ever, don't get me wrong, I think that it can be very very powerful and important for us to process and talk about work outside of work, but it doesn't.
00:15:31
Speaker 4: Have to be this all consuming thing that I mean.
00:15:35
Speaker 3: I feel like we grow up thinking what our lives are going to be is like what we're going to do for a living, which makes sense. Again, we spend a lot of time doing it, and we can think and dream about what kind of life we're going to be living too, not just what we're going to be doing to make money. Now, a lot of people do have passion woven into their job, and I think that that's okay too.
00:15:53
Speaker 4: It doesn't mean that's bad.
00:15:54
Speaker 3: But I just feel like it's important to keep talking about the fact that that doesn't always have to be the case, and you don't have to keep trying to find a different job until you feel passionate about yours. You can do that, but it's not the only avenue to create a fulfilling life.
00:16:09
Speaker 4: And I just want people to know that, all.
00:16:12
Speaker 2: Right, So here's your sign that your work doesn't have to be everything. It can be your job, not your passion, not your whole world. Find things in your life that make you happy and fulfilled outside of your job.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: Got third thing.
00:16:36
Speaker 2: Right? Next, we have my cousin Amanda Rieger Green aka my Psychic cousin if you know her from the Bobby Bone Show. She has a podcast called Soul Sessions, and her gifts help others feel seen, and they often say that after a reading they've never been so understood in their lives, which is just an amazing feeling to have. She offers ways to tap into your intuition or look for signs from loved ones who have passed on, and she really wants to help people tap into their fullest human potential and harnessing our God given gifts and you know, be on our highest, brightest path in life. And she recently did a reading for another woman that I love, Emily Curl, iHeartRadio's digital and social host, and they talked about worthiness.
00:17:22
Speaker 5: It's churning and one of the things too, and this is really important. From twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four. This year is fast paced. There's no way around it. And I've had multiple clients recently who they just wish they were in your shoes because they're in really slow paced seasons of life. You're not. It is a year this fast, so it is imperative that you take time to step back and say, what is my motive behind this? You know, do I really want to do this? Is my heart in it? Am I excited about it? Or am I doing it to keep busy? Because I'm afraid if I slow down, I'm not enough. I'm not doing enough. And they're talking to me about worthiness, and I'm going to tell you something really funny because before we got on the call, this hit me and I smiled. I said to someone, this has been years ago. We were talking about worthiness and being enough or feeling enough, and I said, yeah, I struggled with that. And she says, you know, I didn't struggle with that as much as I struggle with being too much. And you teeter between the two. Am I enough or am I too much? And your gift in this lifetime and this year is saying where do I feel just right? It's like Goldilocks or whatever you know, or the Three bears, you know, it's just right, Like where do I feel not less than, not too much? Because you are You're a tall glass of water. I mean, you have a lot of energy, a lot of life to you, and some people cannot sustain that. And it has nothing to do with your heart or your talents. It's just that some people do not operate at the level you do. But finding things, environments work that really feel like the right fit where you're not reaching too far or are too far into the lack cup or in the past. So your consciousness an abundance mindset that also feels peaceful. And this is huge abundance and peace simultaneously. I want to feel not just enough. I want to feel more than enough. My cup runneth over, but I also want a piece and ease aflow. And that is between twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. It is all about finding a new kind of foundation or balance where you feel like everything has its place. And this year it may be like you put too many ornaments on your tree. You know how we have those years where we decorate the tree and it's just totally overloaded, and other years we're more minimalistic. Depending on your Christmas tree, but say, right.
00:19:53
Speaker 6: Even in my apartment, it's like everything is like as overdone. I'm maximalist, like to the.
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Speaker 4: Full right now, but I go to the back of the cours.
00:20:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, it goes back and forth. And that's what they're showing me about you. They're kind of they're giving me the Christmas tree analogy, which I don't think they've ever given me before, but it makes a lot of sense. But this is the year where it's like just put everything out there, get it all, and it may feel a little cluttered because next year is about streamlining. You're gonna know, oh, that's too much, that feels cluttered. Or this friendship, this relationship is draining the heck out of me, or it is taking so much of my time and when this person text or when this person reached out reaches out, I'm feeling like, oh gosh, when am I going to make time for them? And you don't want to feel that way in your heart. You want things to feel balanced and you want that sense of feeling enthusiastic in all that you do. And it doesn't mean we feel enthusiastic all the time. Certainly we are human beings and we cycle through phases, but enthusiasm from the inside out, empowerment versus feeling like you're giving and giving and not really feeling seen, or and significance, feeling significant. Have I made my mark on the world? Am I making an impact? Is my voice making an impact? And I'm going to share something with you that is coming through And this is on an evolutionary soul level for you. You have a humanitarian soul, meaning you want to make the world a better place and you want it to make an impact and leave a legacy that when you are gone, whatever you have done adds value. So there are components to you that want to contribute, but not just in your personal relationships, in your work on a larger scale, and that is just beginning to formulate within you do. Is that resonating?
00:21:46
Speaker 6: It does? I think often like I've gone, I've really gotten into like content creation and making things for my platform and thinking about that. I was thinking about, you know, what's my why? And I think going back to like me being like a younger kid wanting to fit in so desperately, is like now feeling so confident in where I am and feeling like I finally found my footing. My why is I want to make other people just not feel alone, not feel like they don't have a place to fit in, or like that someone's taking care of them and watching out for them, and like I want to be that person. So oftentimes when I create content, I look through a lens of like what's going to make someone else feel less alone, that they're a part of the club, that I picked them first for my team, all of those things, Like I really take that to heart because I really wanted that when I was younger, and so now I'm like, okay, how can I give that back in just a small way in content creation.
00:22:29
Speaker 4: So that's the thing I've been thinking about a.
00:22:30
Speaker 5: Lot well, and there's that element of the humanitarian but also inclusivity, helping you know environments that feel inclusive.
00:22:40
Speaker 4: All right?
00:22:40
Speaker 2: I love that question from Emily. I mean, think about it. What's what's your Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you feeling this way? If you can analyze your motive behind something, you can change your attitude around it or your decision as to whether or not you want to keep doing it. And if you struggle with the feelings like am I enough or maybe am I being too much? Right now? Do I feel like these are my people? Is this situation the right fit? I want you to take these words from Amanda and find the people places in situations where you feel just right. Try to identify the situations that feel draining to you, because you deserve to feel enthusiastic in everything that you do oor thing. Write Your Story with Ali Fallon is the newest show that has been added to the network. Ali hosts a workshop where she teaches people to find their voice and learn to write stories about their lives, and now she wants to make that information available and accessible to everyone. You can binge the first nine episodes. Now they are quick episodes and even if you don't plan to write a novel or big story about your life. These episodes can help you learn to tell a good story to your friends, or write the best made of honor speech is your best friend's wedding, or something like that. Here's a snippet from the episode that's titled The Magical Parallels on Storytelling and Life The One Big Problem shout out Donald Miller.
00:24:19
Speaker 7: One of the things that I love that my friend Don Miller says about seeing our lives through the lens of storytelling is he says, when you encounter a problem, you can ask yourself the question, what does this make possible? Because what we know is that inside of the framework of a story, problems make a lot of things possible for the hero. Without a problem, there would be no story without a problem, there would be no transformation of the main character of the story, that hero that we're talking about. Without a problem, there would be nothing interesting, nothing engaging to stay in tune for. And if problems are this central to storytelling, maybe we can look at our life through the lens of storytelling and see them as this central to our lives as well. Problems are inevitable and they're going to pop up, there's no way to get around that. So we can ask ourselves about the problems we face in our lives.
00:25:09
Speaker 2: What does this make possible?
00:25:12
Speaker 7: And I know I haven't done as much of this on this podcast, but I want to just stop and linger here for a second and talk about how this is one of the many ways that storytelling can heal us in our lives. For me, writing my story has saved my life. I say that over and over and over again. It's really true. Being able to see my life through the lens of storytelling has shifted my perspective on such deep and foundational things. It's helped me to mine the truth and the wisdom that's inside of my life that I never would have been able to see or discover if I hadn't stopped and observed and paid attention and really looked there. And this is one of those things I am embarrassed to say. I guess that ten years ago, if you would have talked to me, I probably would have sounded like I was playing the victim on a bunch of different things. I would have talked about my life as if it was nothing but problems and I was never going to overcome them, and I was trapped inside of this reality that I didn't want to be in. And when I started to see my life through the lens of storytelling, I began to see how much agency I actually had to overcome these problems for myself. I began to see myself as the hero of the story. I began to ask myself this question about the problems in my life. If a problem pops up, what does this make possible for me? Does this make possible that I could transform into a more elevated version of myself. Does this create a possibility for carving out some character that wasn't there before. Does this allow me to learn a new skill that I didn't have before? Does this open up a new solution for me that I never would have considered if I hadn't faced this problem. So I want you to think about this as it relates to your story. I am going to teach you in this episode how to define the one big problem that's present in your story and how to amplify that problem, because those two skills are what you need in order to get to the next phase of the formula. But I would feel like I was doing you a disservice if I didn't also pause and ask you to think about inside of your life story, what are the problems that you're facing. What's the one big problem that you're facing right now? If you could solve one problem in your life, what would that one big problem be? And ask yourself about that problem? What does this make possible for me? How could this problem actually be to my great benefit? How could this problem be so central to the story that's being written in my life that if it were gone, the story would be over, The story would be uninteresting, the story would have no engagement, and I would have no reason to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
00:27:48
Speaker 2: So what is the big problem of your life that you want to solve? I want to remind you that you have agency. You can change your story. Think what does this make possible? Love of saying that, I'd probably say it fifteen million times on certain episodes, But what does this make possible? Ask yourself that question and make the changes that you need in order to live your best, happiest life. And with that, I want to say, I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into each of these podcasts, and I hope you'll go check them out as you need therapy with kat to fodda soul sessions with Amanda Rieger Green, and write your story with Ali Fallon. You can listen to all of them on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow, like subscribe, download, review all the things to support these amazing women. And I want to encourage you to to practice gratitude if you're not already doing that. Four Things Gratitude is something we encourage big time. If four is intimidating, try one thing gratitude and just think of one thing every day that you're thankful for. And if you would like a guide, a tool, something that was created to help those that are trying to get into gratitude with that has encouraging quotes and some fun things all inside, check out our four Things Gratitude Journal. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to education in Haiti and you can find our four Things Gratitude Journal. Two different cover options are available for this third edition. First edition, second edition they all sold out. Third edition is up with two color options, and I'm really loving alternating between the colors. I kind of just go, well, I'm going to do the pink one today, or I'm going to do the blue one today. So four Things dot com check that out, and again one hundred percent of the proceeds go to Haiti. All Right, have the day that you need to have. Bye.
Speaker 1: Cass up little food for yourself life. Oh it's pretty bad. Hey, it's pretty beautiful. Beautiful for that for a little mouth exciting because said he You're kicking with full thing with Amy Brown.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: Happy Thursday, Amy here, And for this week's episode, I'm going to give you the first thing, which will be just me talking about an experience that I literally had today. I got a mammogram last week and then I was called back for a second screening, which then led to an ultrasound. It was this whole thing that went onto my head. It was the most stressful two hours ever. So I'm just going to talk through some of those feelings and some of you may relate, or maybe some of you are putting off something. Maybe it's not an ammig, maybe it's just you know, your obgy in checkup or some other doctors of what we need to have, or maybe just some hard conversation you need to have with someone. Whatever you're putting off, don't put it off. But I'm also going to give you a little taste of some of the other podcasts that are on my network for the second, third, and fourth thing. And I want to do that because one maybe you haven't heard of them, and two maybe even meaning to check them out and you just really haven't had time. And then three because they have some awesome insights to offer. And I love the women who host these podcasts. So with all that said, let's get into it.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: First.
00:01:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am definitely someone who well, because my mom had cancer and my dad had cancer, I sometimes have thoughts, well, I'm going to get cancer. But then I don't want to have those thoughts because I feel like if I have those thoughts, then I'm, you know, inviting the cancer. And I know that it's it's not necessarily linked to that for sure, but I do think our thoughts have a lot to do with how our body responds to stress. And if I'm constantly stressed that I'm gonna get cancer, well you see where I'm going with that. But breast cancer does not run in my family, so I've never had much concern for that. And I got a mammogram last week. I thought everything was fine, and then I got a letter in the mail saying that I had some dense tissue. So I booked an appointment to go in a week later, which was today, and I kind of was like, oh, dense tissue. I googled it. It's very common, nothing really to worry about. They just want to be extra cautious. So I'm on the phone. When I'm there, I've got my coffee. I'm just like like, let's go get this done. Chop chop. And the woman looked at me and she said, do you know why you're here? And I said, yeah, dence tissue and she said, yeah, no, we found a spot in your left breast that wasn't there year ago. And instantly my whole demeanor change, like I honestly feel it in my body right now, even though I'm letting you know right now before I get into the story, I am okay. I don't think I would be here like la la la telling you the story if I had gotten different results today, for sure. But I literally just felt into my body like how I felt the minute she looked at me with a very serious face like oh no, no, you're here for a very specific reason. And then she pulled up my scans from last week and showed me this spot on my left breast that wasn't there a year ago, and she said, the radiologist wants to get new scans and then if he's satisfied you can go. If he's not, then we're going to need to get an ultrasound, but you will have results before you leave here today. You're not going to leave here without knowing if you know you need more tests done or if you're in the So I was like, okay. Meanwhile, I am like trying to hold back the tears because again, my mind just starts racing. Well, I knew this was going to happen. My mom had it although she had anal cancer. My dad had it although he had like throat cancer, maybe tongue as well. Neither one of them had breast cancer. But still now it's in my head and I'm sitting here thinking about what my life is going to be, Like, how am I going to tell my kids? What's what? You know? I just spiral. Meanwhile, I'm like, don't cry, don't cry, I don't cry, And she's like, could you go ahead, and just like yeah, turn that way and I'm gonna smush this down. She's like is that too tight? Is that okay? Tell me if it's too tight, and like it's not too tight. Honestly, lady, I can't feel anything you're doing to me because my body is here. But my mind is not here. My mind is in the future living with cancer and how I'm gonna deal with it, but also how I'm going to beat it and how it's going to be awesome because I'm not going to let this defeat me, and I will find out what is possible from that and I will get to the bottom of what's important and in life. And I start asking myself all these deep questions because you know clearly I have cancer now. Then she does the skanch said go sit outside, We'll come talk to you in ten minutes, and I'm like, okay, trying to hold back the tears. Trying to hold back the tears. I send my sister a text and I'm like okay, And then they come out He's not satisfied. We need you to go do an ultrasound and I'm like, yep, m hm, I knew it. I got cancer. The whole time she's doing the ultrasound, the story is building. I've already had my breasts removed in my head, and then I'm like, am I going to get implants? Or am I not? Have I lost my hair? It's crazy what our minds will do. I sit there for ten minutes after that, and she comes in and says, Okay, you're all clear. Just make sure you do your self exams throughout the year and come back next year for your yearly appointment. And then I was just sent on my way and it was just this emotional roller coaster of I got there kind of easy breezy with my coffee, ain't no thing dense tissue, and then boom, went into almost two hours of stress and literally my body feeling as though I now have this disease, and I'm super emotional and I'm holding back the tears, and then well, lah, I just walked out of there, easy breezy again and got in my car and drove away, like okay, Well that was interesting, and it just got me thinking of things sometimes we avoid because we're nervous, because honestly, that experience was so taxing on me that I'm like, well, I don't want to go back next year for my scan. I mean, obviously, I know I want to go because I want to be as proactive as possible, and I don't want to take advantage of the fact that I even have access to care like this, and there's some people in the world that don't, so I need to go, but I also don't want to feel all those emotions again and go through that. And there was a handful of years where I didn't go to the gynecologist for similar reasons, and I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe it was tied into my mom's cancer, maybe not, I don't know. I just avoided it. I didn't want to know what was going on with me, and I didn't think it was important to go, and really it was, because really the key is early detection. If you can find something early, then you're likely good. And then it got me curious about genetic testing because I've never had that done, and I was reading this whole article about the genetic tests that are available for certain types of cancers. And this is just a list. There might be more, but this is what I found. Breast cancer, ovarian colon, thyroid, prostate, pancreatic melanoma. My mom also had that, sarcoma, kidney cancer, stomach cancer, so there are some potential pitfalls with genetic tests. I did read that because if the test reveals no known genetic cancer len, then that puts you back to square one in terms of figuring out why a cancer is common in your family. And if the test does confirm that the presence of an abnormal gene is there, that doesn't automatically mean that something bad is going to happen. And in some cases the gene creates only a slightly higher risk, like slightly higher I saw. The American Cancer Society said that most cancers are not passed down through families. The number of inherited cancer cases is only five to ten percent. Now the story is different if your parents had breast cancer or any other hereditary cancer, So definitely do your own research. I just wanted to share with you my very personal experience and how I am not going to put off my test next year, even though it was highly stressful. And I'm not going to put off my obgian appointments. And if you have anything that you've been avoiding, book the appointment. Maybe you also have a hard conversation you have been avoiding and that is building up stress in your body, or you're not happy with certain things in your life and you know that there needs to be a change, but you keep putting it off. Body keeps the score. Stress leads to inflammation, and inflammation leads to disease, and that doesn't necessarily mean cancer, but certain ailments are going to show up if we're not taking care of ourselves and doing the hard things, which again could either be going to that appointment, or having a tough conversation, or making a major life change or whatever it is that you need to do to take care of you. That was really what I was inspired to get on here and share with you that yes, it's natural to have fear around some of these things, but we're going to be so happy that we did the hard thing, got it over with so we know the results. And then at the end of the day, if we find out something that we didn't want to hear, if we were proactive and we catch something early, then the odds are in our favor, which makes me the Hunger Games. But it's a whole nother conversation. Sometimes honestly, I just feel like I'm living in the Hunger Games. That school pickup line, I mean, that is fight to the death. That stresses me out. And my daughter, she actually just walked in here because she heard me talk about the genetic testing, and she's over here whispering to me, I want to get genetic tests done, which makes sense because she was adopted and she doesn't know a lot of her family history. Who knows. Maybe we'll figure out some tests that we can do just so we can have more information. The more you know. But I don't want her living in fear, and I don't want to live in fear because cancer is definitely a common disease and we all likely know someone who has had it. And again I speak as someone who's had parents that had cancer, and it raises a different set of concerns within me, and I'm sure you if you're in a similar situation. And I fear that my risk of cancer is higher, but I don't want to live with that fear because again, I don't think what my parents had is a hereditary thing, and the likelihood of me getting it is very low. I want to live as though I'm not going to get it, and I don't want to live in fear. But I do want to be prepared and I do want to be proactive. So hopefully at least one of you needed to hear this encouragement. Second thing, right, So, Kat Defada answers a question from a listener every Wednesday on her Unique Therapy podcast, and on her episode that actually went up yesterday, she answers an interesting question about being fulfilled in your job.
00:11:28
Speaker 3: Here it is, I am working in a profession that I have not always hated, but for the past two to four years, I've started to dread. I don't see this as I went into the wrong field, but that it has simply run its course in my life. I'm now starting a master's program in an unrelated field to leave this profession. It will take me about twenty months to complete the program. Unfortunately, I'm the breadwinner and my home so I can't just take any other job for the next two years. We rely on my income. What advice can you give me for surviving my current profession until then? Changing jobs will not help me.
00:12:01
Speaker 4: I know this.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: I left a job two years ago hoping a new environment would help, but it did not. Okay, So I really like this question and I think it's a great question, And it also sounds like this person is in a pretty healthy place. You're not shaming yourself for choosing the wrong thing or blaming your workplace environment. You're just noticing that you're in need of a change and the current job you had as run its course, and it's okay to change. And I love that I feel like so many people stay in the same profession or avenue in their whole lives because.
00:12:32
Speaker 4: They feel trapped.
00:12:33
Speaker 3: And a lot of times we feel trapped because we believe it's too late to start, or we've got start over, or we have put too much effort into what we're in.
00:12:41
Speaker 4: We don't want that to go to waste.
00:12:43
Speaker 3: And while I do think it's super hard to somewhat start over in a career, I also don't think it's impossible.
00:12:50
Speaker 4: So I'm already really.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: Excited for you that you're doing this, and it sounds like you're on the right track. You have something to look forward to, a way out of your current job and the current dread you're feeling, and oftentimes knowing there's.
00:13:04
Speaker 4: A way out and knowing that there is an.
00:13:06
Speaker 3: End date can alone alleviate some of that dread or just like achiness of your current environment. And so I hope that that has already kind of helped a little bit, knowing that you're doing something so this is not just a forever thing.
00:13:21
Speaker 4: I also think it is.
00:13:22
Speaker 3: Super super helpful to create a life outside of work, and to make that life outside of work super important. For a lot of people, work does not equal passion, and I feel like I talk about that quite often on here. We live in a society where it feels like we have to be so passionate and love our jobs and be obsessed with working and want to talk about it all the time. It's like a part of our personality. And a lot of people don't have passion when it comes to their jobs.
00:13:52
Speaker 4: And I really think that's okay.
00:13:54
Speaker 3: I think it's more than okay, And I think it's really unfair to say that you can't live a fulfilling life unless you love your job. I personally think you can. And this brings me back to me talking about my vacation. The thing I was looking forward to the most when thinking about getting back home again, like I said, wasn't jumping back into work. It was jumping back into my routine, my habits, the people that I like to see on a regular basis, things like that, and the smaller things in my life, not this thing that I spend doing eight to ten hours a day. The smaller things in my life are my favorite parts of my life. Making my favorite meal of the week, sleeping in my own cozy bed, going to the grocery store with Patrick, I really enjoy those little things, and I want to encourage you to make sure you are packing in a lot of small little things that might seem mundane but also bring you a lot of joy that you might just be like, not even realizing bring you a.
00:14:54
Speaker 4: Lot of joy.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: I think we can spend way too much time making work the that our lives revolve around. I mean, we spend what eight to ten hours their day. Sometimes people spend more, and then we spend more time obsessing about it, talking about it, planning around it. It's just this it again, like I said earlier, becomes like our personality, part of our personality, and I don't think that it needs to be.
00:15:22
Speaker 4: That way at all.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: If ever, don't get me wrong, I think that it can be very very powerful and important for us to process and talk about work outside of work, but it doesn't.
00:15:31
Speaker 4: Have to be this all consuming thing that I mean.
00:15:35
Speaker 3: I feel like we grow up thinking what our lives are going to be is like what we're going to do for a living, which makes sense. Again, we spend a lot of time doing it, and we can think and dream about what kind of life we're going to be living too, not just what we're going to be doing to make money. Now, a lot of people do have passion woven into their job, and I think that that's okay too.
00:15:53
Speaker 4: It doesn't mean that's bad.
00:15:54
Speaker 3: But I just feel like it's important to keep talking about the fact that that doesn't always have to be the case, and you don't have to keep trying to find a different job until you feel passionate about yours. You can do that, but it's not the only avenue to create a fulfilling life.
00:16:09
Speaker 4: And I just want people to know that, all.
00:16:12
Speaker 2: Right, So here's your sign that your work doesn't have to be everything. It can be your job, not your passion, not your whole world. Find things in your life that make you happy and fulfilled outside of your job.
00:16:32
Speaker 3: Got third thing.
00:16:36
Speaker 2: Right? Next, we have my cousin Amanda Rieger Green aka my Psychic cousin if you know her from the Bobby Bone Show. She has a podcast called Soul Sessions, and her gifts help others feel seen, and they often say that after a reading they've never been so understood in their lives, which is just an amazing feeling to have. She offers ways to tap into your intuition or look for signs from loved ones who have passed on, and she really wants to help people tap into their fullest human potential and harnessing our God given gifts and you know, be on our highest, brightest path in life. And she recently did a reading for another woman that I love, Emily Curl, iHeartRadio's digital and social host, and they talked about worthiness.
00:17:22
Speaker 5: It's churning and one of the things too, and this is really important. From twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four. This year is fast paced. There's no way around it. And I've had multiple clients recently who they just wish they were in your shoes because they're in really slow paced seasons of life. You're not. It is a year this fast, so it is imperative that you take time to step back and say, what is my motive behind this? You know, do I really want to do this? Is my heart in it? Am I excited about it? Or am I doing it to keep busy? Because I'm afraid if I slow down, I'm not enough. I'm not doing enough. And they're talking to me about worthiness, and I'm going to tell you something really funny because before we got on the call, this hit me and I smiled. I said to someone, this has been years ago. We were talking about worthiness and being enough or feeling enough, and I said, yeah, I struggled with that. And she says, you know, I didn't struggle with that as much as I struggle with being too much. And you teeter between the two. Am I enough or am I too much? And your gift in this lifetime and this year is saying where do I feel just right? It's like Goldilocks or whatever you know, or the Three bears, you know, it's just right, Like where do I feel not less than, not too much? Because you are You're a tall glass of water. I mean, you have a lot of energy, a lot of life to you, and some people cannot sustain that. And it has nothing to do with your heart or your talents. It's just that some people do not operate at the level you do. But finding things, environments work that really feel like the right fit where you're not reaching too far or are too far into the lack cup or in the past. So your consciousness an abundance mindset that also feels peaceful. And this is huge abundance and peace simultaneously. I want to feel not just enough. I want to feel more than enough. My cup runneth over, but I also want a piece and ease aflow. And that is between twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. It is all about finding a new kind of foundation or balance where you feel like everything has its place. And this year it may be like you put too many ornaments on your tree. You know how we have those years where we decorate the tree and it's just totally overloaded, and other years we're more minimalistic. Depending on your Christmas tree, but say, right.
00:19:53
Speaker 6: Even in my apartment, it's like everything is like as overdone. I'm maximalist, like to the.
00:19:57
Speaker 4: Full right now, but I go to the back of the cours.
00:20:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, it goes back and forth. And that's what they're showing me about you. They're kind of they're giving me the Christmas tree analogy, which I don't think they've ever given me before, but it makes a lot of sense. But this is the year where it's like just put everything out there, get it all, and it may feel a little cluttered because next year is about streamlining. You're gonna know, oh, that's too much, that feels cluttered. Or this friendship, this relationship is draining the heck out of me, or it is taking so much of my time and when this person text or when this person reached out reaches out, I'm feeling like, oh gosh, when am I going to make time for them? And you don't want to feel that way in your heart. You want things to feel balanced and you want that sense of feeling enthusiastic in all that you do. And it doesn't mean we feel enthusiastic all the time. Certainly we are human beings and we cycle through phases, but enthusiasm from the inside out, empowerment versus feeling like you're giving and giving and not really feeling seen, or and significance, feeling significant. Have I made my mark on the world? Am I making an impact? Is my voice making an impact? And I'm going to share something with you that is coming through And this is on an evolutionary soul level for you. You have a humanitarian soul, meaning you want to make the world a better place and you want it to make an impact and leave a legacy that when you are gone, whatever you have done adds value. So there are components to you that want to contribute, but not just in your personal relationships, in your work on a larger scale, and that is just beginning to formulate within you do. Is that resonating?
00:21:46
Speaker 6: It does? I think often like I've gone, I've really gotten into like content creation and making things for my platform and thinking about that. I was thinking about, you know, what's my why? And I think going back to like me being like a younger kid wanting to fit in so desperately, is like now feeling so confident in where I am and feeling like I finally found my footing. My why is I want to make other people just not feel alone, not feel like they don't have a place to fit in, or like that someone's taking care of them and watching out for them, and like I want to be that person. So oftentimes when I create content, I look through a lens of like what's going to make someone else feel less alone, that they're a part of the club, that I picked them first for my team, all of those things, Like I really take that to heart because I really wanted that when I was younger, and so now I'm like, okay, how can I give that back in just a small way in content creation.
00:22:29
Speaker 4: So that's the thing I've been thinking about a.
00:22:30
Speaker 5: Lot well, and there's that element of the humanitarian but also inclusivity, helping you know environments that feel inclusive.
00:22:40
Speaker 4: All right?
00:22:40
Speaker 2: I love that question from Emily. I mean, think about it. What's what's your Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you feeling this way? If you can analyze your motive behind something, you can change your attitude around it or your decision as to whether or not you want to keep doing it. And if you struggle with the feelings like am I enough or maybe am I being too much? Right now? Do I feel like these are my people? Is this situation the right fit? I want you to take these words from Amanda and find the people places in situations where you feel just right. Try to identify the situations that feel draining to you, because you deserve to feel enthusiastic in everything that you do oor thing. Write Your Story with Ali Fallon is the newest show that has been added to the network. Ali hosts a workshop where she teaches people to find their voice and learn to write stories about their lives, and now she wants to make that information available and accessible to everyone. You can binge the first nine episodes. Now they are quick episodes and even if you don't plan to write a novel or big story about your life. These episodes can help you learn to tell a good story to your friends, or write the best made of honor speech is your best friend's wedding, or something like that. Here's a snippet from the episode that's titled The Magical Parallels on Storytelling and Life The One Big Problem shout out Donald Miller.
00:24:19
Speaker 7: One of the things that I love that my friend Don Miller says about seeing our lives through the lens of storytelling is he says, when you encounter a problem, you can ask yourself the question, what does this make possible? Because what we know is that inside of the framework of a story, problems make a lot of things possible for the hero. Without a problem, there would be no story without a problem, there would be no transformation of the main character of the story, that hero that we're talking about. Without a problem, there would be nothing interesting, nothing engaging to stay in tune for. And if problems are this central to storytelling, maybe we can look at our life through the lens of storytelling and see them as this central to our lives as well. Problems are inevitable and they're going to pop up, there's no way to get around that. So we can ask ourselves about the problems we face in our lives.
00:25:09
Speaker 2: What does this make possible?
00:25:12
Speaker 7: And I know I haven't done as much of this on this podcast, but I want to just stop and linger here for a second and talk about how this is one of the many ways that storytelling can heal us in our lives. For me, writing my story has saved my life. I say that over and over and over again. It's really true. Being able to see my life through the lens of storytelling has shifted my perspective on such deep and foundational things. It's helped me to mine the truth and the wisdom that's inside of my life that I never would have been able to see or discover if I hadn't stopped and observed and paid attention and really looked there. And this is one of those things I am embarrassed to say. I guess that ten years ago, if you would have talked to me, I probably would have sounded like I was playing the victim on a bunch of different things. I would have talked about my life as if it was nothing but problems and I was never going to overcome them, and I was trapped inside of this reality that I didn't want to be in. And when I started to see my life through the lens of storytelling, I began to see how much agency I actually had to overcome these problems for myself. I began to see myself as the hero of the story. I began to ask myself this question about the problems in my life. If a problem pops up, what does this make possible for me? Does this make possible that I could transform into a more elevated version of myself. Does this create a possibility for carving out some character that wasn't there before. Does this allow me to learn a new skill that I didn't have before? Does this open up a new solution for me that I never would have considered if I hadn't faced this problem. So I want you to think about this as it relates to your story. I am going to teach you in this episode how to define the one big problem that's present in your story and how to amplify that problem, because those two skills are what you need in order to get to the next phase of the formula. But I would feel like I was doing you a disservice if I didn't also pause and ask you to think about inside of your life story, what are the problems that you're facing. What's the one big problem that you're facing right now? If you could solve one problem in your life, what would that one big problem be? And ask yourself about that problem? What does this make possible for me? How could this problem actually be to my great benefit? How could this problem be so central to the story that's being written in my life that if it were gone, the story would be over, The story would be uninteresting, the story would have no engagement, and I would have no reason to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
00:27:48
Speaker 2: So what is the big problem of your life that you want to solve? I want to remind you that you have agency. You can change your story. Think what does this make possible? Love of saying that, I'd probably say it fifteen million times on certain episodes, But what does this make possible? Ask yourself that question and make the changes that you need in order to live your best, happiest life. And with that, I want to say, I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into each of these podcasts, and I hope you'll go check them out as you need therapy with kat to fodda soul sessions with Amanda Rieger Green, and write your story with Ali Fallon. You can listen to all of them on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow, like subscribe, download, review all the things to support these amazing women. And I want to encourage you to to practice gratitude if you're not already doing that. Four Things Gratitude is something we encourage big time. If four is intimidating, try one thing gratitude and just think of one thing every day that you're thankful for. And if you would like a guide, a tool, something that was created to help those that are trying to get into gratitude with that has encouraging quotes and some fun things all inside, check out our four Things Gratitude Journal. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to education in Haiti and you can find our four Things Gratitude Journal. Two different cover options are available for this third edition. First edition, second edition they all sold out. Third edition is up with two color options, and I'm really loving alternating between the colors. I kind of just go, well, I'm going to do the pink one today, or I'm going to do the blue one today. So four Things dot com check that out, and again one hundred percent of the proceeds go to Haiti. All Right, have the day that you need to have. Bye.
