Episode Transcript
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Jennifer (00:08):
Hello and welcome.
My name is Jennifer Wade, andthis is 3D Authenticity, where
we talk about all things relatedto building a life in the real
world that authenticallyreflects your core being.
No matter if you're a chronicpeople pleaser or you're
knee-deep in a major identitycrisis, or especially if you've
given up believing you can havea deeply fulfilling life, it's
(00:31):
time to learn how to love whoyou are and unapologetically
live your one-of-a-kind life.
Join me for a deep dive in howto do exactly that.
Hello, my friends, and welcomeback to another episode of 3D
Authenticity! I am so glad tohave you here with me today.
And I hope you're doing well.
(00:52):
I hope you're taking care ofyourself and feeling
appreciated.
And for my part, I want you toknow that I definitely
appreciate you and the fact thatyou are here sharing some of
your precious time with metoday.
So thank you.
Today's episode is really adeep dive into the second pillar
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of the larger 3D authenticityframework, which is the process
that I teach.
And the three pillars areIdentity, Worthiness, and
Alignment.
So, in some way or another,every single one of these
episodes is connected to thosethemes.
But today we are focusing onthat second pillar, Worthiness.
(01:34):
Now, this entire layer of theframework is made up of the
all-important wayfinderpractices.
This is where the really heavylifting of living an authentic
life happens.
This is the layer that helps ustranslate that inner being,
that worthiness-based identitythat we have, all of us, inside
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of us into the lived experienceof 3D authenticity.
So these are the practices thatmake it possible to shift your
way of showing up in the worldso that your actual day-in and
day-out life feels like it's inalignment with who you are.
But the thing is, building thatbridge from our inner world to
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our outer landscape ischallenging.
We all know this to be truefrom lived experience, right?
We set out to be moreauthentic, but maybe someone
says something to us.
Maybe even it's just an offhandcomment, but it makes us doubt
ourselves.
Or maybe we start to wonder ifwe're just acting a life of
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confidence.
Because if we're really honestwith ourselves on the inside,
we're constantly questioning ifwe're good enough.
So how can we actually beconfident?
Yeah.
So building this bridge betweenthe inner world and the outer
world and maintaining thisbridge so that there's this easy
flow in both directions is noteasy.
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And I'd argue it's some of themost difficult but most
rewarding work that we can do ina lifetime.
I imagine it kind of liketrying to build a bridge from
one bank of a river to the otherbank, but having to build it
right at the place where thereare these intense whitewater
rapids that are very capable ofjust carrying you away.
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And the difficulty is that inorder to build this bridge, you
have to be in the rapids.
You have to build the supportsfor this bridge, and you have to
be in this intense whitewaterrapid flow multiple times a day,
every single day.
So the chances of losing yourway are very high if you don't
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have a good system for stayinganchored.
Now, just in case it's notclear, the whitewater rapids
here are life.
The rapids are things likenavigating relationships,
careers, family, socialexpectations, conflict, limiting
beliefs, self-doubt andcriticism, both our own
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self-criticism and the judgmentsof others.
And then there's peoplepleasing and perfectionism.
I mean, I could go on.
These are the rapids of lifethat we all have to be able to
navigate in order to live inalignment and start experiencing
a deeply fulfilling life that Iknow we all want.
So these wayfinder practicesthat I'm talking about today are
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the skills we need to doexactly that.
And it's absolutely crazy to methat these are not skills most
of us have ever been taught.
It is still a lucky thing ifyou manage to stumble upon the
very skills that will actuallyhelp you feel more satisfied
with your life.
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So let me tell you howdelighted I am that you are here
and that I can share these withyou.
They are literallylife-changing.
These wayfinder practices willchange your life by actually
making it possible to build thatbridge through the chaos,
through those whitewater rapids,so that you can connect your
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inner being with your outerworld in the most authentic and
beautiful and meaningful way.
So, what are the nine wayfinderpractices?
Well, if you're into personaldevelopment at all, these will
not sound new to you, and that'sprecisely because these things
are effective.
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You hear about them a lot.
These are the skills that youcan come back to time and time
again to anchor yourself.
And further, these are skillsthat never max out.
I mean, they're they're theseskills are worthy of a lifetime
of practice.
So here we go.
The nine wayfinder practicesare: Mindfulness, Surrender,
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Radical Acceptance,Self-Compassion, Thought Work,
Welcoming All Feelings,Embodiment, Gratitude, and
Boundaries.
So today I am just going totell you a little bit about each
one of these practices, andthen in future episodes, you
hear me talking about them.
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They come up sometimes inlittle groups and sometimes
individually.
So you'll hear me talk aboutthem.
Um, but for right now, I justwant to share with you what each
practice fundamentally is andhow it supports living an
aligned, authentic life.
So to start off, we need totalk about the master wayfinder
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practice.
It is the one that makes all ofthe others possible.
So you've surely heard about itonline, maybe even from your
friends.
So the master practice ismindfulness.
Truly, if I had just onewayfinder practice to work with,
this would be it.
Mindfulness influenceseverything because it allows you
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to watch your mind and youremotions and your experience
without being held hostage bythem.
And it allows you to remainpresent instead of being lost in
the past or future.
It is the key to unlocking thetruth that you are not your
thoughts.
(07:24):
And maybe even crazier if youhappen to be highly sensitive
like me.
You are not your feelings.
Yeah, when you've developedsome skill with mindfulness,
you'll be more in tune withyourself and your values, and it
reduces all the noise and thestress and anxiety because you
fundamentally understand thatthese feelings are tied to
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thoughts, and you are not yourthoughts, and not all thoughts
are true.
So that's actually kind of alittle preview of another
wayfinder practice to come, butwe'll get there later.
So back to mindfulness.
One of the things you hear alot, which is so true, is that
mindfulness shifts you from aplace of reactivity to a place
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of responsiveness.
Yeah, instead of reacting tothe whims of whatever thoughts
or feelings you might beexperiencing, you can take a
moment to observe yourexperience and choose the
response that you believe servesyou and the situation best in
that moment.
This is such a wonderful skillwhen you're faced with making
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tough decisions that have bigimplications on living in
authentic alignment.
I don't think this is hard toimagine.
Let's say you are trying tomaintain a difficult boundary,
like maybe not going to yourparents' home for the holidays.
So mindfulness allows you tosee that your fearful thoughts
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are telling you to let it go,let go of the boundary, that
creating the conflict isn'tworth it, because really, at the
end of the day, maybe it's notthat big of a deal.
So mindfulness allows you tosee that discomfort you're
feeling.
And the discomfort in your bodyis related to your fear of
upsetting your parents.
But instead of reacting to thediscomfort and betraying
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yourself, you're able tomindfully choose the path of
discomfort because of the biggerimplication toward alignment.
You've made a choice to supportyourself.
But if you couldn't even seeyour reflexive reaction, you
wouldn't have the power to dosomething differently.
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Again, mindfulness is such apowerful and layered practice.
I mean, many books have beenwritten on it.
And so just a few sentenceshere really don't do it full
justice.
But let me sum it up like this:
mindfulness, number one, is a (09:51):
undefined
practice for returning to andremaining ground remaining
grounded in the present.
Two, mindfulness separates youfrom the immediacy of your
thoughts and feelings, givingyou the power to intentionally
choose how you show up moment tomoment.
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Three, mindfulness strengthensthe stance of openness and
curiosity through non-judgment.
And four, mindfulness deepensyour awareness of sensations,
your connection with others, andyour understanding of your own
inner workings.
So, like I said, if I had tochoose just one wayfinder
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practice, this would be it.
Okay, so let's keep it moving.
The next wayfinder practice issurrender.
Specifically, surrendering theillusion of control.
So, do you struggle with tryingto control other people?
And I gently challenge you tobe really honest with yourself
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here.
Do you try to manage people tothe point that you're trying to
dictate how they should be orhow they should act?
As in, maybe you strugglebecause they aren't making
decisions that you think are thebest, or maybe they're choosing
a partner that you don't likefor whatever reason, things like
that.
Or what about your need tocontrol the circumstances of
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your life?
How much do you try to controlhow your life unfolds by
planning everything out to thetiniest degree?
By creating contingency plansand then contingency plans for
the contingency plans.
This can be sneaky.
It can disguise itself in thecloak of responsibility.
Let's say maybe you have adream job in mind from a young
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age.
So, from a young age, youidentify the school that has the
best program and you tailoreverything you do to get into
that school.
And then you get in, and thenyou work for just the right
internship, and you then you tryto develop just the right
relationship with the rightprofessor or the right boss, and
you keep strategizing andsucceeding because, on some
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level, you have the belief thatif you do all the right things,
the outcome that you want willbe all but guaranteed.
But then in this scenario, howdevastating would it be if, say,
a new tech emerges that makesyour dream job obsolete?
That's happening to a lot ofpeople right now with AI.
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People who quote unquote dideverything right.
The hard truth is that thereare things that will always be
beyond your control, just as itis also true that we cannot
control other people.
Period.
Influence, yes.
Control, no.
Learning to surrender thisillusion means one, you're able
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to see reality more clearly, andtwo, you can pour your energy
into the things that you cancontrol, and three, you don't
have to carry the extremelyheavy burden of trying to
control the uncontrollable allthe time.
It's exhausting.
Learning to set that down isultimately liberating.
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And it opens the door to thevery next all-important
wayfinder practice, which isradical acceptance.
This one is so powerful.
It's just so good for so manythings.
So, for example, do youstruggle with inner resistance?
If so, the solution is radicalacceptance.
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Um, let's see, do you strugglewith feeling like you should be
a certain way or you should bedoing something productive?
Like instead of reading a bookfor half an hour?
Is that inner critic of yoursintensely unkind?
If you say yes to any of that,let's practice radical
acceptance.
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Now, let me tell you a littlebit about radical acceptance
because it might not be exactlywhat you think it is.
Radical acceptance is theultimate practice of
non-judgment.
It is the skill of allowing allthings to be as they already
are, regardless of whetherthey're positive or negative.
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So much of our suffering iscaused by our resistance to what
is.
Now, let me be clear (14:26):
radical
acceptance doesn't mean adopting
a stance of passivity orresignation, but it does
acknowledge that acceptance ofwhat is improves your ability to
handle the present moment.
It's also the first step inmaking meaningful change in the
future.
You have to know exactly whereyou are before you can chart a
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course for where you're going.
Radical acceptance reminds usthat what has already happened
is unchangeable.
And this is especiallyimportant in difficult
situations.
Being stuck in the grip ofanger or disbelief or grief that
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can come with a deep activeconviction that something
shouldn't have happened isuseful only so far as it might
motivate you to take action tomake change in the future.
But it won't change what hasalready occurred.
It won't erase any wrongs.
Yeah, one of the gifts ofradical acceptance is that when
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you do become able to acceptwhat is, however long that may
take in any given situation,that's in your own time.
But the more open and acceptingyou can be of all the difficult
feelings that might come alongwith what is, the more you can
heal.
And remember, the truth is thatyou just can't heal what you're
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resisting, what you're doingyour darndest to avoid feeling,
right?
So radical acceptance is thefirst step toward healing, and
it better equips you to moveforward.
So, yeah, let me try to put afine point on this, and then
we'll move on.
Number one, radical acceptanceopens your eyes to a more honest
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and authentic experience of thepresent moment.
And two, radical acceptancerelieves you of the burden of
constant self-judgment and makesspace for you to exist in this
world as you are, imperfectly.
And because of these things,radical acceptance is a gateway
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to profound healing.
All right, let's keep goinghere.
Let's move on to the nextwayfinder practice, which is
self-compassion.
And I have to say right off thebat that self-compassion really
works in tandem with radicalacceptance, taking it to the
next level.
So think about it.
You can accept somethingwithout loving it.
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But self-compassion is whatopens that door further to
healing, the one that acceptancehas already unlocked, and it
makes room for abidingself-love.
It makes it possible to treatyour imperfections with
kindness.
It shifts your relationshipwith yourself from judgmental,
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maybe even contentious, to aninner space that is more
peaceful and counterintuitivelymore confident.
So when people talk about beingyour own best friend or having
your own back, self-compassionis at the source of that inner
emotional sustenance.
It is quite comparable to thatidealized, loving, mothering
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energy because it combinespatience, presence, and
attention, deep understandingand support.
Self-compassion is the abilityto attend to ourselves in the
way we would imagine an idealpartner or friend or parent
would attend to us.
But we know, from having livedas humans for a while, we know
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that no partner or friend orparent can fully attend to us
the way we want.
No one knows our experiencemore intimately and more
thoroughly than we do.
So we are the only ones who cancare for ourselves at the
deepest levels.
Now, this doesn't mean that thecare of others is unnecessary
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or undesirable.
It just means that we have torecognize the limitations of
others and be willing to meetourselves with love and kindness
where others simply cannot go.
And when it comes to livingauthentically, self-compassion
is the skill that allows you toweather the inevitable emotional
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hits that come from beingcourageously yourself out in the
world.
Through self-compassion, youlearn how to lovingly soothe
yourself.
You learn to thoroughly andlovingly acknowledge the
entirety of your experience,leading to the equilibrium you
need to continue on.
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Self-compassion is at once arefuge that exists in you that
can never be parted from you inany way.
And it is that doorway toworthiness.
Okay, on to the next wayfinderpractice, which is thought work.
So, yeah, I alluded to this onewhen I was talking about
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mindfulness, and these twocertainly work hand in hand with
each other.
The power of thought work isthat it acknowledges the human
tendency toward cognitivedistortion.
So, what do I mean by that?
Cognitive distortion is amental bias or filter that
somewhat skews your experienceof reality.
Now, before you lead to theconclusion that this isn't for
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you, The fact is that we allhave cognitive distortions.
And a fine example of this isthe negativity bias.
Our brains are designed toremember negative experiences
more clearly and for longerperiods of time than positive
experiences.
Because evolutionarilyspeaking, the negative things
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are more likely to lead to harmor even death.
So if we pay more attention tothose things, our chances of
survival go up.
So thought work is a fantastictool for examining your
thoughts, looking for thedistortions or biases,
questioning the truth of yourthoughts.
Like, for example, when yousay, Oh, there's no way I could
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say no to this request, chancesare actually extremely high that
that isn't the truth.
What you are actually saying isthat the consequences of saying
no are unacceptable to you.
Thought work reveals that toyou and then invites you to take
it a step further, look deeper.
What are the consequences ofsaying no?
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Okay, someone else will have topick up the slack.
People will think I'm notstepping up.
They won't ask me to do thingsagain.
They'll think I'm a badcoworker.
Very, very often, the falloutis about how you don't want to
feel or be perceived, not aboutwhat you can or can't actually
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do.
Thought work reveals then whereother wayfinder practices can
come in to support you.
Things like boundaries, radicalacceptance, or welcoming your
feelings.
Even more importantly, thoughtwork helps you build a habit of
selecting your thoughts in a waythat serves you better.
I know it's easy to beresistant to this idea at first,
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but you really can choose yourthoughts.
You can improve the quality ofyour thoughts, and you could
heighten the experience ofpositive emotions by managing
your mind.
Now, to be fair, all of thewayfinder practices are
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connected and they link to oneanother, but these two are
particularly woven together.
The next two wayfinderpractices are welcoming all
feelings and embodiment.
It is really important to notethat we humans experience
feelings as traditional emotionsand as physical sensations.
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But so often people aredisconnected from those physical
sensations, or we try to numbourselves from having to
experience them.
So these wayfinder practicesteach you that you can survive
even the worst emotionaldiscomfort.
And in fact, these practices,along with mindful mindfulness,
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are the way to move through thediscomfort without becoming
utterly overwhelmed by it.
So why go to the trouble ofmoving through the discomfort
when you can just avoid it, youmight ask?
Because the answer is becauseagain, resistance, of which
avoidance is a big type,ultimately leads to more
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suffering.
So welcoming all feelings meansallowing your discomfort or
whatever you're feeling in themoment to be there with you,
fully acknowledged, validated.
That means allowing fear to bewith you as you navigate
uncertainty.
That means allowing grief tosit with you and acknowledging
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it, understanding it as areflection of your love for
something.
Welcoming all feelings meanswelcoming all those things we
don't typically want toexperience and trusting that
they are not permanent.
Frustration, overwhelm, evenanger or guilt.
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The thing is, all of thesefeelings are completely
understandable and normal andhuman.
When you're able to welcomethem into your experience with
the energy of, of course youcame by, of course I'm feeling
this way.
It makes sense.
I've been expecting this.
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Just that shift in stance meansyou've already found just a
little more capacity to handlethe discomfort.
Then taking it a step furtherwith embodiment, you're able to
understand these emotions assensations in your body.
You're able to mindfullyexperience the tightness in your
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chest or the lump in yourthroat or the clenching of your
jaw, and just allow thesesensations to be there and to
pass as part of the totalemotional experience.
Embodiment is in part thepractice of bringing the
undeniability of your mind-bodyconnection into your awareness.
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Being conscious of a sensationmeans you have the capacity to
attend to it.
And in the same way, welcominga difficult emotion means you
can identify whatever need it isexpressing.
And ideally, withself-compassion, you can
lovingly attend to it.
Okay, there are a couple morethings I do want to say about
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embodiment quickly, because itisn't just about noticing the
sensory experience of your body.
There's more.
The fact of the matter is thatthe body is an incredible source
of wisdom.
For many of us, though, thequote-unquote wisdom of the mind
seems to be more reliable andmore acceptable and just deemed
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more trustworthy than that ofthe body.
And the volume of the mind iscertainly turned way, way up.
This is true.
So one of the elements ofembodiment is learning the more
subtle but equally importantlanguage of the body so that you
can tap into its wisdom.
Your body is really good atknowing if something is right
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for you or not, despite theconstant rumination and second
guessing and the spinning of themind.
Your body is such a truthteller.
The depth of somatic wisdom andthe depth of somatic practice
can be this huge eye-opener.
Certainly was for me, and itcertainly has been for many,
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many people.
But you have to open into it.
And the last piece ofembodiment that I think is
incredibly important tounderstand is this idea of
walking your talk, of livingyour values and your priorities
through your day-in and day outchoices, embodying your ideals,
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which doesn't mean perfection,but it does mean intentionality
and imperfect attempts everyday.
The more we can embody what weknow to be true for us as
individuals, and what we believeto be right and aligned with
our values, the higher thesatisfaction we take from our
lives.
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It is really thatstraightforward.
Not easy to do, but as is truewith all of these wayfinder
practices, embodiment is alayered skill.
But thankfully, it is one thatwe can all learn and benefit
from.
Okay, my friends, thank you forhanging in there.
Only two more to go, but theyare just as crucial as these
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others that we've already talkedabout.
So let's keep going.
Let's go to boundaries.
It is very likely that theconcept of boundaries has shown
up in your real lifeconversations with friends or
coworkers, family members maybe.
And I'm certain that you'veencountered talk about healthy
boundaries all over socialmedia.
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And the truth is that peopleare preaching boundaries from
the rooftops, myself included,because they go so wildly
against the grain of what we'vebeen taught self-care is
supposed to be like.
It's not a bottle of wine or abouquet of roses or a luxury
vacation or even a little retailtherapy.
No, instead, boundaries rewritethe narrative about what has so
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long been labeled as selfish orrude or uncaring or unladylike.
And they say instead thatactually taking the best care of
yourself means makingintentional choices that support
appropriate rest, mentalhealth, positive relationship
building, prioritizing yourvalues, and so on.
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People just won't stop talkingabout boundaries because they
are effective and they arerevolutionary for those of us
who may have betrayed ourselvestime and time again out of the
fear of conflict or the drive toexcel by always meeting the
expectations of others, or justa sense of identity that is
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tethered to anyone's, everyone'sstandards, but your own.
So, how do boundaries help youlive more authentically?
Well, they help you protectyour unique way of being, your
unique values and priorities inthe face of a demand to conform
to the expectations of peoplearound you, maybe your family or
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your community, or even societyat large.
Being skilled with boundariesmeans that you have developed
the capacity to mindfully sayyes or no to the opportunities
and the people in your lifewithout the emotional hangover
of guilt or the worry thatyou've upset someone or the
danger of burning out becauseyou've overcommitted yourself.
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And you're not spending so muchmental and emotional energy on
second-guessing yourself orjustifying your choices.
You can move through the worldmore easily, just as yourself.
Your life will be a betterreflection of you because you're
doing more of the things youwant to do and less of the
things that you don't want.
That's pretty liberating, ifyou ask me.
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And that leads me to our finalwayfinder practice.
I adore this one.
Gratitude.
Now, instead of launchingimmediately in with my own
thoughts about gratitude, let meshare a quote with you from one
of the world's greatest expertson the matter.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama,who says, in order to be happy,
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we must first possess innercontentment.
And inner contentment doesn'tcome from having all we want,
but rather from wanting,appreciating, and being grateful
for all we have.
And it's true.
Actively practicing gratitudeis one of the most effective
things we can do to improve ourexperience of the life we're
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leading.
Medical and psychologicalstudies back this up.
Research from highly respectedinstitutions like Harvard and UC
Berkeley, among others, haverepeatedly shown that gratitude
is strongly associated withgreater happiness and improved
physical health.
Practicing gratitude has evenbeen shown to help those who
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struggle with mental health.
Clearly, there's somethingpowerful going on here.
Gratitude shifts your focusaway from what you don't have to
what you do have.
It teaches you to findtremendous value in what you
already have and who you alreadyare.
It invites a sense of enoughinto life.
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You are enough as you are.
There's beauty and value inthis moment.
Gratitude ushers in a sense ofhumility and appreciation by
acknowledging that so much ofthe good that exists in this
world isn't directly of yourmaking.
Gratitude is the ability tofind good in the smallest
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moments of your life as well asthe big zoomed-out version.
And that is an essentialingredient in living a life of
deeper fulfillment andcontentment.
So there you have it, myfriends.
A survey of the all-importantwayfinder practices.
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And I really hope that you'vegotten a taste of just how
powerful these practices are.
Without them, it is just alltoo easy to be swept up by the
current of life and loseyourself.
So I want to finish today withone last thought.
And I think what is so specialabout the Wayfinder practices
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is, as I hope I've demonstrated,that they are so effective at
helping you translate your innerbeing into an outer reality.
They work extremely well on thetrajectory of inner to outer.
But importantly, they also helpyou metabolize those times in
life when something in the outerworld shakes you to your inner
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core.
When you experience tragedy orshock or loss, these wayfinder
practices help soften the blowfrom the outer world on your
inner being.
They are the tools that withtime lead to healing and
wholeness and a return of thatsense of alignment after
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hardship.
They are truly lifesavers.
And so, my friends, that isofficially it for today.
So thank you so much for beinghere with me, and I hope you
will come back and join meagain.
But especially if you have anythoughts or questions about
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today's episode, shoot me anemail at lifescapevisionary at
gmail.com, or you can reach outand find me on Instagram at
3Dauthenticity.
And importantly, if you arefinding these episodes helpful,
I would ask you to pleaseconsider helping this podcast by
subscribing or leaving a ratingor review, and maybe even
(34:50):
sharing this episode withsomeone who you think might be
interested.
And lastly, if you want tobecome more skillful with the
Wayfinder Practices, I want tohelp you.
My small group coachingprogram, 3D Authenticity, goes
deeply into these practices, andwe support each other as we
work to become more skillfulwith them.
(35:11):
So you can learn more about theprogram and sign up for the
wait list to get all theinformation for when the door is
next open.
And the link to that is in theshow notes.
And so, my friends, thank youagain for listening.
I really can't tell you howmuch it means to me.
I'm sending each and every oneof you my love and support.
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So be well, my friends.
Until the next time.