November 20, 2025 • 26 mins
On this episode of The Karen Kenney Show, I dive into the idea of “adjusting your sails”- a message that came to me one morning and has been bopping around in my mind ever since.
Sometimes, life throws us winds that we can’t control, but we always get to choose how we respond.
So, I talk about taking a pause and tuning in, and getting wicked intentional about the direction we're heading… especially as this year wraps up.
I invite us to look at different areas of our lives - whether it’s physical health, relationships, finances, or creativity - and asking ourselves: are my current choices pointing me in the direction I really want to go?
We discuss the little habits that can trip us up (like staying up too late or scrolling on your phone) and the importance of taking a “fearless moral inventory” of what’s really working, and what isn’t. 🫣
There’s also some truth-telling about the baggage we carry… the old stories, beliefs, and resentments that weigh us down and keep us stuck on shore, and definitely not catching the wind.
I share inspiration from my own spiritual teachers, reminding us that the “Winds of Grace” are always blowing…
But we need to patch up our sails, let go of what no longer serves us, and then raise those suckers if we want to move forward!
If you’re ready to stop waiting around for the “right time” and want to start making more thoughtful, aligned choices and changes now…
Then this episode is your little nudge from the universe (and me!) to take some action.
So, go grab some paper, and find a cozy spot, to create some space to both honestly reflect, and to dream.
Thanks so much for tuning in to the show and remember - the power to adjust your sails is always in your own hands. ❤️
BIO:
Spiritual Mentor and writer Karen Kenney uses dynamic storytelling and humor to bring a down-to-earth, no-BS perspective to spirituality and self-development.
Bringing together tools that coach both the conscious and unconscious mind, Karen also helps clients deepen their personal connection to Self and Source, in relatable, practical, and actionable ways, so they can discover their unique understanding of spirituality.
Her practice combines neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis, somatic work, Spiritual Mentoring, and other holistic modalities to help regulate the nervous system, rewrite old stories, remove blocks, and reimagine what’s possible.
A passionate yoga teacher for 25+ years, a longtime student of A Course in Miracles, and a Gateless Writing instructor, Karen is also a frequent speaker, podcast guest, and retreat leader. She coaches both individuals and groups via her programs The Quest and The Nest.
With The Karen Kenney Podcast, she encourages listeners to shift from a thought system of fear - to one of love, compassion, and personal responsibility.
CONNECT WITH KAREN:
Website: http://karenkenney.com/
Podcast: https://www.karenkenney.com/podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karenkenneylive/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenkenneylive/
YouTube:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's the Karen Kenney show. Heyyou guys, welcome to the Karen
Kenney show. I'm super duperexcited to be here with you
today, and the third time is acharm. I've tried to stop this
thing three times that I keepmaking myself laugh.
Baby Jesus in a walnut shell,helped me. Okay, and we're back.
(00:23):
Hi. How are you guys doing outthere? All right, we're gonna
dive. I'm just gonna start. I'mgonna start with the story.
We're just gonna jump right intothis thing. So I may have told
you guys in the past that a lotof times when I wake up in the
morning, like, first thing I dois I stop my spiritual practice
even while I'm in bed. But thereare some mornings, like, I wake
up and literally immediatelythere is a thought in my head. I
(00:45):
kind of talk about it, like wordimpressions, like all of a
sudden there is like a messageor something like in my head. So
I woke up the other morning andthe first thing that I heard in
my head was, adjust your sales.Adjust your sales. And meaning,
like, imagine if you're on aboat and, like, a sail boat.
(01:07):
Okay, so this is kind of likewhat happened the towards the
end of the year, right? I know alot of people wait until like
December 31 they start thinkingabout, you know, New Year's
resolutions, New year, new youlike all that stuff, and I'm not
really into the resolutions. Ido like to kind of take a look
(01:29):
back on what my year has beenlike. I like to kind of start to
think about the kind of year Iwould like to have. I like to be
intentional in my mind. I liketo decide what I'm going to
commit to, what I'm going to letgo of all that stuff, and maybe
I'll do an episode about thatagain towards the end of the
year. But things have been on mymind about it. And when I heard
(01:50):
in my brain, right, when I heardin my mind, adjust your sales,
right? I woke up, I heard it,and it was like, you need to
adjust your sales. And one ofthe things I was thinking about
is this, are the things that I'mspending my time doing, are the
people that I'm spending or notspending time with, or whatever?
(02:13):
Are the thoughts that I'mthinking, are the things that I
am doing in my day to day life?Are they taking me in the
direction of where I really wantto go. My current choices taking
me in the direction that Ireally want to go. And when I
woke up, and the first thingthat I heard like, s, t o, t, J,
(02:34):
spiritual team on the job. And Ihear in my mind, adjust your
sales, like, Hey kid, you gotsome things where you need to
shift and adjust your salesbecause they are not taking you
in the right direction, right?So I'll just give you an
example. Let's say you have ahabit of like, staying up too
late. Okay, and so let's say youhad made a commit. I'm just
(02:57):
making these up, but I'll giveyou a personal one in a minute.
But let's just say you had madea commitment that you were going
to get up every day and you weregoing to move your body or go to
the gym or work out or stretchor do something, and you but you
were self sabotaging, or youwere just consistently staying
up late, and then the morningtime would come, and then you
couldn't get your ass out ofbed, and then it was like You're
(03:20):
basically self sabotagingyourself from the get go, then
you have no energy. You don't goto the gym, you don't move your
body, take your walk, go for arun, whatever your thing is. And
then you're like, in this slump,and you're like, I don't feel
good. And then the end of theday, you have no energy. And
sometimes we have no energybecause we haven't been moving
our bodies. I know that soundscounterintuitive, but you get
(03:42):
kind of sluggish. Things startto get kind of like I said,
instead of having like, likelightning in your veins or
energy like coursing throughyour body, things start to turn
to, like maple syrup andmolasses, right? You start to
get like a little jelly inside.Oh, my God. Okay, let's say that
(04:03):
one of your goals, right? Thiswould be a personal one for me,
that one of my goals is to atleast five days a week to make
progress on my book, to writeevery day, not every day, or
five days a week, or whatever itis, in the direction of getting
this first draft finally fuckingfinished, right? But I somehow
start to make other aspects ofmy life more important, like
(04:25):
I'll get distracted by, I gottaget do a pod. Hello. I gotta, I
gotta get this podcast done, orI gotta send out this email. I
gotta remember to send thereminder emails for the nest. Or
I gotta do this. Or I gotta, Igotta, I gotta, I gotta, I
gotta. There's always gonna beshit to do, all right, but
there's only one book I'mworking on, and it needs my
time, it needs my attention, orwhatever. So just giving you a
thing, right? So it could be inany area of your life. It could
(04:49):
be in your personalrelationships, where like, you
like, want to be more presentwith your children. You want to,
like, show up for them, and likeif you're going. To be like, on
a walk with them, like to bewith them so that you're seeing
what they're seeing and hearingwhat they're hearing, and you're
literally recording memories oftheir childhood life. And you're
(05:10):
starting to recognize, like,what catches their eye and what
lights them up in your presentinstead of being on your friggin
phone. So let's say that yourgoal was, I really want to be
present for my kids, like whenI'm with them, I'm with them,
but yet you find yourself likebeing on your phone, and you're
starting to feel like, liketheir little, like
interruptions, like it's aninconvenience for you, right?
(05:31):
Because you get sucked into theworld of the internet or
whatever, but So like, if yourgoal is, I want to be more
present for my children, butyou're like, constantly got your
face embedded in your phone thatis a place where you need to
adjust your sales right, becausethey are not the way that is
blowing is not taking you in thedirection that you want to go,
(05:54):
that your current choice is nottaking you right towards the
outcome that you really want tohave. Let's say that you're you
know, you want to repair yourrelationship with your sweetie,
or you want to have moreconnection with somebody, a
friend, a lover, your partner,your wife, your whoever, right?
But yet you find yourselffalling into the same old
patterns of the way that yourespond and react and think
(06:16):
about them, etc. It's like, Hey,kid, better adjust your sales.
Okay, so I was just thinkingabout this. So I think it's
important that as we're movingtowards the end of 2025, and
we're sat, look, this suck isgoing to be done in like six
weeks, and we're wrapping thisup, we're wrapping this year up,
and it's like, Who do you wantto be? How do you want to be in
(06:38):
the world? And I know I talkabout this a lot, because I
really feel like this is one ofthe most important things in our
lifetime. I think being really,really aware of how we're being
physically, mentally,emotionally and spiritually and
spiritually, a lot of times getslike, left off, you know what I
(06:58):
mean? But like, Who are youbeing? How are you showing up?
Are the choices that you'remaking actually in alignment? Is
there congruency between whatyou say and like what you
actually do? And I was justthinking about like, all the
different places you can lookat, right? Your physical health,
your physical well being, andthat itself can be broken down
into a bunch of different ways.Right? Talking about your
(07:20):
nutrition, your your yournutrition, like what you're
putting in your body, yoursleep, your hydration, your
movement and exercise, your restand relaxation, like your
nervous system, like all thesethings, right? You can look at
your finances, right? That'sanother one. Let's say that you
like, are like, hey, I reallywant to set up an emergency
fund. I want to have it. And I'mjust making this number up,
(07:42):
right? I want to have at least$1,000 saved it as a as a
security blanket, like in mysavings account, in case
something you know, crazyhappens or whatever. And yet you
find yourself buying $5 $7coffees every day. Like that is
not moving you in the direction.And I know I'm not saying skip
your coffees. We can all findplaces where we are, where we
(08:03):
have a leak, right? Whether wehave a leak in our spending
habits, when we have a leak inour energy spending habits, like
where we're putting ourattention, we have a leak where
we're pouring into a project, aperson, a program, a thing,
where there's it's not likegiving you or you're not, you're
not like, receiving the outcome,right? You can look at this
(08:24):
thing and you're like, This isnot going to end well, right? I
need to adjust my sales, andwhile I was thinking about all
of this, right? So if you'relooking at your health, your
finances, your relationships,like, all the different buckets,
right, all the different bucketsthat you might have in your
life, you can, like, go rightdown the line, your business,
your creativity, your mentalwell being, like, all of it
(08:46):
right time with friends,creativity, whatever it is. But
we want to start looking atthese things. You don't have to.
I'm just inviting you to becauseI know for me, it
really helps me with, I alwayssay, with the time I have left
on the planet, and no time isguaranteed, so with the time I
have left, I really do want tobe living intentionally, right?
(09:08):
I want to be committing tothings. And I'm going to do a
whole other podcast. Note toself, I should just write this
down. Hey, I'm going to writeI'm literally going to write
this down so I don't forget,okay, about commitment and
consistency. Okay, done. Allright. Here's the thing. This
also, when I was thinking aboutadjust your sales, this is a
little bit of, like, of a pottoo. So number one, I'm going to
(09:31):
invite you to kind of take alook at your life. Take a look
at some of the different areas.And if that feels too
overwhelming, literally, youguys, like, get a piece of
paper, right? Like, I'm holdingup, get, get a pad of paper, get
a piece of paper, and literally,just write down the different
buckets of your life. Again, itcould be your health, right? And
your physical so you can do,like, physical, mental,
emotional, spiritual, financial,like, whatever, all the
(09:52):
different buckets, and then kindof go through and look at be
real, take a fearless moralinventory, as they say, in the
20. 12 step programs and like,Get Get clear with yourself
before you can't get right withyourself until you're clear with
yourself. You can't changesomething until you know that
there's a problem. How do weknow that there's a problem when
our sales need to be adjustedbecause we wanted to go south,
(10:14):
and we find ourselves at theNorth Pole, right? We might want
to, we might want to tweak someshit. Okay? But this also got me
to thinking about something thatone of my spiritual teachers,
Eknath, ashwaran, you guys haveheard me talk about ashwaran
Like endlessly on the podcast,and ashwaran one time quoted,
and this is how I first heardthe quote from Sri Ramakrishna.
(10:38):
There's a quote that says, thegrace of God is a wind which is
always blowing. The grace of Godis a wind which is always
blowing. I've also heard peoplesay that it's the like Grace
they take. If you don't like theword God, you can just take the
word God out, but you can saygrace is a wind, right? That is
(11:01):
the Divine is a wind which isalways blowing. Don't get weird
about the name. I always say topeople, don't get too hung up on
the name, right? Because youmiss the whole point of it. You
miss the heartbeat of it. Butthe grace of God is a wind which
is always blowing. And this isthe thing. The second part of
this is it's up to us to raiseour sails, because the wind is
(11:23):
always available to us, right?But we've got to, because I was
thinking about this whole thing,like we need to adjust our
sails. Well, that's implyingthat we actually have some sales
in the game, like we have somesales raised, and if we do Amen,
right? Double Amen, hands.Hallelujah. But some folks are
sitting around and they're noteven raising their sails. You
(11:45):
know what I'm saying? So we'regoing to get into this a little
bit, because I was started tothinking about, well, adjusting
our sails. And I'm like, well,sometimes the wind is blowing in
such a way, right? And I'm like,I know that I cannot control the
direction of the wind, but whatI can do is adjust my sails and
respond right? Respond. So makesome tweaks, as I was saying. So
(12:10):
if I can't change the directionof the wind and the way that
it's blowing, maybe I can tweakhow I'm responding to that. So
whatever life is bringing to mydoor, right? I get to decide how
I'm going to open that door andreceive what is coming my way,
how I'm going to respond to it,the choices that I'm going to
make. So ashwaran kind of talksabout it like this, you know, so
(12:32):
if the winds of grace are alwaysblowing, all we need to do is
raise our sails. This meanswe've got to do our part. You
know, a lot of times people talkabout this idea of, like,
manifestation, like, I'm gonnamanifest my dream job, I'm gonna
manifest my dream partner, I'mgonna all of us. I'm gonna
manifest, you know, frigginLamborghini, or a bunch of
(12:53):
money, or a wicked nice house,or whatever the thing is. And
they always just think, well, Idid my part, I made my order.
And I'm always like, look, God'snot your Aaron boy, right? Like
the like, you don't just like,place your order at the drive
thru window and then sit backand wait for your wishes to be
fulfilled. This isn't rub thelamp and the genie gives you
(13:14):
three wishes. Like, you got todo your part. You know what I'm
saying. So ashwaran talks aboutit like this. He has, I mean, I
have over there, I'd show him toyou, but I have all of his
books, right? And one of his,one of his books that is one of
my favorite books, is a bookcalled Words To Live By. Words
To Live By. And I'm gonna, yeah,well, I'm not gonna mention it
(13:36):
right now, but okay, Words ToLive By. It's a daily guide to
leading an exceptional life.That's the book. And this is
what he said. And I love this.He says, All that you and I so
this is it starts with thequote, the grace of God is a
wind which is always blowing.That's Sri Ramakrishna. And this
is a Sharon's commentary onthat. He says, All that you and
I have to do is to put oursails, put up our sails, and let
(14:00):
the wind of grace carry usacross the sea of life to the
other shore, but most of us,this always makes me laugh, but
most of us are firmly stuck onthe shore.
Our sail is torn and our boat isoverloaded with excess baggage,
our likes and dislikes, ourhabits and opinions and all the
(14:22):
resentments and hostilitieswhich we have acquired right?
And this is what A Course inMiracles would say is like your
grievances, right? You can havea grievance and you can have a
miracle, but you cannot haveboth. Okay, he goes on to say
this, but just as it is weourselves who have acquired this
baggage, it is we who can alsogradually learn to toss it
(14:43):
overboard. Right? The wind isblowing, but we have to make our
boat seaworthy. Oh, my God, Ilove this. We can patch up our
sail and unfurl it to catch thewind that will carry us to the
other shore. Okay? So a lot oftimes, not only do we not even
have our sails raised, we alsohave a boat right, and we have a
(15:07):
sail that has holes in it, andwe have a boat that is not
seaworthy, it is not ready. Weare carrying all of this shit
from our past, all of those oldstories, the beliefs, the
identities, right, thoseexperiences that we had in our
earliest years in ourenvironment, the beliefs that we
started to create, the meaningthat we assigned to the awful,
(15:27):
traumatic things that happened,and the way that they can just
keep holding you down, manweighing you down so your boat
can't even get off the shore. Itis like moored. It is like
stuck, like the anchor is likestuck on the ground. It's not
even sea worthy this boat. So wegotta do some shit, like we have
to be proactive. And so much ofthe work that I do with people
(15:50):
is about this. It's like, howcan we create not only a nervous
system that is more resilientand resourceful and responsive,
right? But how can we, like, asa person, like, respond to life
from a place where we're notafraid, we're not as fearful,
because I said not as right,we're always going to have a
(16:11):
little fear that comes with thehuman experience. But how can I
show up in the world in a lessfearful way? How can I show up
from a place of love and moresafety? How can I respond to my
life and know that I have theinner resources to respond to
whatever life brings to my doorlike I am resourceful, I am
(16:32):
responsive, I am able right tobe able to like I trust myself
to know, like so much of thework that I do is like helping
people to let go of, and I don'tmean let go of like, Oh, it
didn't happen. And we pretendlike, no, it's like really
reimagining what's possible forus, rewriting those old stories
(16:52):
and like, like, literally givingourselves the tools that we need
so that we can navigate throughlife. This is like helping us to
set our sails. Number one,getting a sail, unburdening your
damn boat, right? Getting in theboat, having a sail that's
patched up so that it can blowyou where you actually want to
go, right, so you can have thekind of life and relationships
(17:16):
and etc, etc, right, that youthat you want to have. And it's
like we the wind is alwaysblowing, if the wind is always
blowing, and we're just sittingthere and we're not raising our
sails, opportunity just blowsright over our head.
Opportunities for love andcompassion and connection and
friendship and joy andplayfulness and creativity,
(17:37):
right? All the good stuff oflife just blows right on by,
because we don't even know firstof all that the wind is blowing.
Can't be bothered to even lookup, to recognize to go outside,
to get yourself in the elementof life, like, oh yeah, some
shit, some shit, some windsblowing. What do I want to do? I
want to raise my sail, and Iwant to use that energy to take
(17:58):
me where I want to go. I don'tknow about you, but I want to
right be using that current ofwind. And I can't always choose
which direction the wind isgoing to blow, but I can choose
how I'm going to adjust my sailto still get myself where I want
to go. And you know, I wasthinking about this, and I made
(18:18):
a few notes here, and it's like,we have to prepare, right? We
have to prepare. So if God'sgrace, or the universe's grace,
is constantly, like, availableto us, if it's always blowing,
it means that it's not dependenton, like, the mood of the day.
The winds of grace are alwaysblowing what's needed from us,
(18:43):
each person, each individual, wehave to prepare ourselves to be
able to catch that wind, toreceive the wind, and we do this
through our own efforts, our ownpreparedness, our own
willingness. Like to show up andto go, Hey, to notice, pay
attention. Enough like, oh yeah,the wind is blowing right. The
(19:05):
opportunities are there. There'slove all around me, there's
compassion all around me, thereis divine favor all around me.
But if we're not going to unfurlour sails, we're not gonna catch
jack shit, you know. Or we'rejust gonna keep choosing, right?
(19:29):
We're just gonna keep choosing,you know? And it is. I mean,
there's a thing, there's a thingthat we talk about, like, oh,
spiritual amnesia. Sometimes isa spiritual amnesia. We're like,
where we just kind of forget whowe are and to whom we belong.
But there's also what I can kindof jokingly call, like a little
spiritual laziness, where you'rejust not participatory. Like you
(19:50):
want an outcome, you want aparticular outcome, but like you
don't want to do the work to getthat outcome. You just want to
wish it into the atmosphere. Youjust want to wish it into the
ethos and expect. Like theangels to, like, float down on
their little wings. I'm makinglike, little flappy things,
like, I have little wings, andcome down and deliver it to you.
I'm like, No, hello, Queen ofSheba, you are not, you know
(20:11):
what I mean. So we can't beweighed down by all of our
nonsense, our likes, ourdislikes, our bullshit, our
baggage, our preference is like,you know, we got to be able, you
got to be able to adjust thosesales man, because they can take
us to some pretty incredibleplaces. That Divine Wind can
(20:32):
take us to some prettyincredible places, but we've got
to adjust our sails. So here'sthe thing again, it's an
invitation do it or don't do it.But I hope you do do it, because
when we sit down and spend sometime with ourselves, and we
start to get honest withourselves, and we start to look
at our lives, and we say, oh,like, how would I want this to
(20:55):
be different? Is something goingon in my life that I'm not happy
about if I'm not happy about it,right? We always and can't just
blame it on other people. It'syour life. It's your choices. We
got to take a look at our ownrole in things. And I love that.
You know, a lot of times peopleare afraid to look because
they're afraid to find out. Theythink, oh, it's all my fault,
and they feel guilty andashamed, and they do the blame
(21:16):
game on themselves. First, I'dlike to blame other people, and
then you get a certain amount ofspiritual maturity and you
realize, like, oh, you realize,like, Oh yeah, I'm the common
denominator and all the shit inmy life. I'm the captain of my
ship. Oh, my God. So I but Ilove that, because that means
that I actually do have somecontrol. I do have some will. I
(21:36):
do have some say, You know whatI mean? So this is, this is what
I'm saying. Like, I woke up andI heard in my head, you need to
adjust your sales. And so I tooka good look. I've been thinking
about it, right? I've beenthinking about it for the past
few days. And here's the thing,I'm taking action. I've already
taken action on a couple ofthings, which I'm really excited
about, you know? And I don'tspend time beating myself up.
(21:58):
That's not that interesting tome. It's not that I don't take
accountability, but, like, ifthere's other people, I would
need to make amends to, like,get that done, but with myself,
it's like, yeah, I get toadjust. And it's, it's spent
energy, it's wasted energy, justsitting there, like, wishing I
had been different three daysago or three months ago, or
whatever. I'm like, What can Ido now? The wind of grace is
(22:19):
blowing right now I'm going toraise my sale and I'm going to
adjust my sales accordingly, andthat's what I want to invite you
in to do too. Don't be afraid oftaking an inventory. Don't be
afraid of taking a look, anhonest look, at what's going
down in your life, in yourrelationships, in your bank
accounts, in the your habits,the ways that you're being
(22:39):
physically, mentally,emotionally and spiritually
and like, this is your life.Like you got to take it
seriously. We don't get to pushit all. Keep saying, Oh, well,
next year I'll do this, or wheni do when i Then I when I then
I, like, No, right now, rightnow. We got six weeks left to
this year. Let's sit our assesdown. Let's get out some fun
(23:01):
paper and pen, somehighlighters, some markers, some
crayons, right? Vision boarded,whatever you want to do, but
let's be honest about where wehaven't been raising our sales,
where we have holes in oursales, and where we need to
adjust our sales. Okay, sothat's my little love letter
from my heart to yours. I hopeit's been helpful to you in some
(23:21):
ways. And I believe thatRamakrishna also talks about the
sails, is like your mind, right?Like, like the winds of the
Divine, God's grace is alwaysblowing right above our heads.
But we have to raise our sails.We have to elevate our minds to
catch it. We got to catch thewind, right? So this is where I
always encourage you, if you donot have a DSP, a daily
(23:44):
spiritual practice, if you don'tspend any time kind of
contemplating, the deeper thethe more mystical the whatever
you want to the mysterious, thespiritual aspects of this human
this human experience, like weare. We are spiritual beings
having this human life, thishuman experience, we get to
experience ourselves and expressourselves. And what a gift,
(24:05):
right? So it's like, we got toraise ourselves. Part of this is
we got to elevate our minds,right? We got to go above like
this, like the baselineanimalistic like wants and not
wants and the likes and thedislikes and the grievances and
all that shit. It's like, No, wegot to kind of remember who we
are, right? Remember who youare, remember to whom you
belong. Catch that sale. We dothis through, you know, effort.
(24:30):
Efforts not a bad thing. We kindof shrink away from discipline
and effort. I'm going to talkabout that a numb boy. I gotta
keep writing myself littlenotes. Okay, these are good
things. These are good things.So, yeah, that's what I got for
you today. Okay, I love you. Iappreciate you so much.
Remember, you can always findout all the different ways to
(24:52):
connect with me, work with me,take a yoga class, take a
writing salon, like participateall of it right at. Karen
kenney.com it's k, e, n, n, e,y, right.com. All my stuff is on
there. And if you want to getthis in your inbox each week the
podcast, if you want to find outwhat I'm up to, I'm gonna have
(25:13):
some new things I'm doing in2026 so if you want to find out
what those shenanigans are, justget on my email list. Karen
kenney.com/sign up one word.Okay, thanks, you guys. I
appreciate you so much whereveryou go. May you leave yourself
in the people, in the place, inthe animals, in the planet
better than how you found itwherever you go. May you and
(25:35):
your presence and your love andyour energy and your sails and
the wind right. May the wind beat your back right, may it
wherever you go, may you beblessing. Bye. Hey, thanks so
much for listening to the show.I really love spending some time
together. Now, if you dig theshow or know someone that could
(25:56):
benefit from this episode,please share it with them and
help me to spread the good wordand the love. And if you want to
be in the know about all of myupcoming shenanigans, head on
over to Karen kenney.com/sign upand join my list. It'll be
wicked fun to stay in touch.Bye. You.
It's the Karen Kenney show. Heyyou guys, welcome to the Karen
Kenney show. I'm super duperexcited to be here with you
today, and the third time is acharm. I've tried to stop this
thing three times that I keepmaking myself laugh.
Baby Jesus in a walnut shell,helped me. Okay, and we're back.
(00:23):
Hi. How are you guys doing outthere? All right, we're gonna
dive. I'm just gonna start. I'mgonna start with the story.
We're just gonna jump right intothis thing. So I may have told
you guys in the past that a lotof times when I wake up in the
morning, like, first thing I dois I stop my spiritual practice
even while I'm in bed. But thereare some mornings, like, I wake
up and literally immediatelythere is a thought in my head. I
(00:45):
kind of talk about it, like wordimpressions, like all of a
sudden there is like a messageor something like in my head. So
I woke up the other morning andthe first thing that I heard in
my head was, adjust your sales.Adjust your sales. And meaning,
like, imagine if you're on aboat and, like, a sail boat.
(01:07):
Okay, so this is kind of likewhat happened the towards the
end of the year, right? I know alot of people wait until like
December 31 they start thinkingabout, you know, New Year's
resolutions, New year, new youlike all that stuff, and I'm not
really into the resolutions. Ido like to kind of take a look
(01:29):
back on what my year has beenlike. I like to kind of start to
think about the kind of year Iwould like to have. I like to be
intentional in my mind. I liketo decide what I'm going to
commit to, what I'm going to letgo of all that stuff, and maybe
I'll do an episode about thatagain towards the end of the
year. But things have been on mymind about it. And when I heard
(01:50):
in my brain, right, when I heardin my mind, adjust your sales,
right? I woke up, I heard it,and it was like, you need to
adjust your sales. And one ofthe things I was thinking about
is this, are the things that I'mspending my time doing, are the
people that I'm spending or notspending time with, or whatever?
(02:13):
Are the thoughts that I'mthinking, are the things that I
am doing in my day to day life?Are they taking me in the
direction of where I really wantto go. My current choices taking
me in the direction that Ireally want to go. And when I
woke up, and the first thingthat I heard like, s, t o, t, J,
(02:34):
spiritual team on the job. And Ihear in my mind, adjust your
sales, like, Hey kid, you gotsome things where you need to
shift and adjust your salesbecause they are not taking you
in the right direction, right?So I'll just give you an
example. Let's say you have ahabit of like, staying up too
late. Okay, and so let's say youhad made a commit. I'm just
(02:57):
making these up, but I'll giveyou a personal one in a minute.
But let's just say you had madea commitment that you were going
to get up every day and you weregoing to move your body or go to
the gym or work out or stretchor do something, and you but you
were self sabotaging, or youwere just consistently staying
up late, and then the morningtime would come, and then you
couldn't get your ass out ofbed, and then it was like You're
(03:20):
basically self sabotagingyourself from the get go, then
you have no energy. You don't goto the gym, you don't move your
body, take your walk, go for arun, whatever your thing is. And
then you're like, in this slump,and you're like, I don't feel
good. And then the end of theday, you have no energy. And
sometimes we have no energybecause we haven't been moving
our bodies. I know that soundscounterintuitive, but you get
(03:42):
kind of sluggish. Things startto get kind of like I said,
instead of having like, likelightning in your veins or
energy like coursing throughyour body, things start to turn
to, like maple syrup andmolasses, right? You start to
get like a little jelly inside.Oh, my God. Okay, let's say that
(04:03):
one of your goals, right? Thiswould be a personal one for me,
that one of my goals is to atleast five days a week to make
progress on my book, to writeevery day, not every day, or
five days a week, or whatever itis, in the direction of getting
this first draft finally fuckingfinished, right? But I somehow
start to make other aspects ofmy life more important, like
(04:25):
I'll get distracted by, I gottaget do a pod. Hello. I gotta, I
gotta get this podcast done, orI gotta send out this email. I
gotta remember to send thereminder emails for the nest. Or
I gotta do this. Or I gotta, Igotta, I gotta, I gotta, I
gotta. There's always gonna beshit to do, all right, but
there's only one book I'mworking on, and it needs my
time, it needs my attention, orwhatever. So just giving you a
thing, right? So it could be inany area of your life. It could
(04:49):
be in your personalrelationships, where like, you
like, want to be more presentwith your children. You want to,
like, show up for them, and likeif you're going. To be like, on
a walk with them, like to bewith them so that you're seeing
what they're seeing and hearingwhat they're hearing, and you're
literally recording memories oftheir childhood life. And you're
(05:10):
starting to recognize, like,what catches their eye and what
lights them up in your presentinstead of being on your friggin
phone. So let's say that yourgoal was, I really want to be
present for my kids, like whenI'm with them, I'm with them,
but yet you find yourself likebeing on your phone, and you're
starting to feel like, liketheir little, like
interruptions, like it's aninconvenience for you, right?
(05:31):
Because you get sucked into theworld of the internet or
whatever, but So like, if yourgoal is, I want to be more
present for my children, butyou're like, constantly got your
face embedded in your phone thatis a place where you need to
adjust your sales right, becausethey are not the way that is
blowing is not taking you in thedirection that you want to go,
(05:54):
that your current choice is nottaking you right towards the
outcome that you really want tohave. Let's say that you're you
know, you want to repair yourrelationship with your sweetie,
or you want to have moreconnection with somebody, a
friend, a lover, your partner,your wife, your whoever, right?
But yet you find yourselffalling into the same old
patterns of the way that yourespond and react and think
(06:16):
about them, etc. It's like, Hey,kid, better adjust your sales.
Okay, so I was just thinkingabout this. So I think it's
important that as we're movingtowards the end of 2025, and
we're sat, look, this suck isgoing to be done in like six
weeks, and we're wrapping thisup, we're wrapping this year up,
and it's like, Who do you wantto be? How do you want to be in
(06:38):
the world? And I know I talkabout this a lot, because I
really feel like this is one ofthe most important things in our
lifetime. I think being really,really aware of how we're being
physically, mentally,emotionally and spiritually and
spiritually, a lot of times getslike, left off, you know what I
(06:58):
mean? But like, Who are youbeing? How are you showing up?
Are the choices that you'remaking actually in alignment? Is
there congruency between whatyou say and like what you
actually do? And I was justthinking about like, all the
different places you can lookat, right? Your physical health,
your physical well being, andthat itself can be broken down
into a bunch of different ways.Right? Talking about your
(07:20):
nutrition, your your yournutrition, like what you're
putting in your body, yoursleep, your hydration, your
movement and exercise, your restand relaxation, like your
nervous system, like all thesethings, right? You can look at
your finances, right? That'sanother one. Let's say that you
like, are like, hey, I reallywant to set up an emergency
fund. I want to have it. And I'mjust making this number up,
(07:42):
right? I want to have at least$1,000 saved it as a as a
security blanket, like in mysavings account, in case
something you know, crazyhappens or whatever. And yet you
find yourself buying $5 $7coffees every day. Like that is
not moving you in the direction.And I know I'm not saying skip
your coffees. We can all findplaces where we are, where we
(08:03):
have a leak, right? Whether wehave a leak in our spending
habits, when we have a leak inour energy spending habits, like
where we're putting ourattention, we have a leak where
we're pouring into a project, aperson, a program, a thing,
where there's it's not likegiving you or you're not, you're
not like, receiving the outcome,right? You can look at this
(08:24):
thing and you're like, This isnot going to end well, right? I
need to adjust my sales, andwhile I was thinking about all
of this, right? So if you'relooking at your health, your
finances, your relationships,like, all the different buckets,
right, all the different bucketsthat you might have in your
life, you can, like, go rightdown the line, your business,
your creativity, your mentalwell being, like, all of it
(08:46):
right time with friends,creativity, whatever it is. But
we want to start looking atthese things. You don't have to.
I'm just inviting you to becauseI know for me, it
really helps me with, I alwayssay, with the time I have left
on the planet, and no time isguaranteed, so with the time I
have left, I really do want tobe living intentionally, right?
(09:08):
I want to be committing tothings. And I'm going to do a
whole other podcast. Note toself, I should just write this
down. Hey, I'm going to writeI'm literally going to write
this down so I don't forget,okay, about commitment and
consistency. Okay, done. Allright. Here's the thing. This
also, when I was thinking aboutadjust your sales, this is a
little bit of, like, of a pottoo. So number one, I'm going to
(09:31):
invite you to kind of take alook at your life. Take a look
at some of the different areas.And if that feels too
overwhelming, literally, youguys, like, get a piece of
paper, right? Like, I'm holdingup, get, get a pad of paper, get
a piece of paper, and literally,just write down the different
buckets of your life. Again, itcould be your health, right? And
your physical so you can do,like, physical, mental,
emotional, spiritual, financial,like, whatever, all the
(09:52):
different buckets, and then kindof go through and look at be
real, take a fearless moralinventory, as they say, in the
20. 12 step programs and like,Get Get clear with yourself
before you can't get right withyourself until you're clear with
yourself. You can't changesomething until you know that
there's a problem. How do weknow that there's a problem when
our sales need to be adjustedbecause we wanted to go south,
(10:14):
and we find ourselves at theNorth Pole, right? We might want
to, we might want to tweak someshit. Okay? But this also got me
to thinking about something thatone of my spiritual teachers,
Eknath, ashwaran, you guys haveheard me talk about ashwaran
Like endlessly on the podcast,and ashwaran one time quoted,
and this is how I first heardthe quote from Sri Ramakrishna.
(10:38):
There's a quote that says, thegrace of God is a wind which is
always blowing. The grace of Godis a wind which is always
blowing. I've also heard peoplesay that it's the like Grace
they take. If you don't like theword God, you can just take the
word God out, but you can saygrace is a wind, right? That is
(11:01):
the Divine is a wind which isalways blowing. Don't get weird
about the name. I always say topeople, don't get too hung up on
the name, right? Because youmiss the whole point of it. You
miss the heartbeat of it. Butthe grace of God is a wind which
is always blowing. And this isthe thing. The second part of
this is it's up to us to raiseour sails, because the wind is
(11:23):
always available to us, right?But we've got to, because I was
thinking about this whole thing,like we need to adjust our
sails. Well, that's implyingthat we actually have some sales
in the game, like we have somesales raised, and if we do Amen,
right? Double Amen, hands.Hallelujah. But some folks are
sitting around and they're noteven raising their sails. You
(11:45):
know what I'm saying? So we'regoing to get into this a little
bit, because I was started tothinking about, well, adjusting
our sails. And I'm like, well,sometimes the wind is blowing in
such a way, right? And I'm like,I know that I cannot control the
direction of the wind, but whatI can do is adjust my sails and
respond right? Respond. So makesome tweaks, as I was saying. So
(12:10):
if I can't change the directionof the wind and the way that
it's blowing, maybe I can tweakhow I'm responding to that. So
whatever life is bringing to mydoor, right? I get to decide how
I'm going to open that door andreceive what is coming my way,
how I'm going to respond to it,the choices that I'm going to
make. So ashwaran kind of talksabout it like this, you know, so
(12:32):
if the winds of grace are alwaysblowing, all we need to do is
raise our sails. This meanswe've got to do our part. You
know, a lot of times people talkabout this idea of, like,
manifestation, like, I'm gonnamanifest my dream job, I'm gonna
manifest my dream partner, I'mgonna all of us. I'm gonna
manifest, you know, frigginLamborghini, or a bunch of
(12:53):
money, or a wicked nice house,or whatever the thing is. And
they always just think, well, Idid my part, I made my order.
And I'm always like, look, God'snot your Aaron boy, right? Like
the like, you don't just like,place your order at the drive
thru window and then sit backand wait for your wishes to be
fulfilled. This isn't rub thelamp and the genie gives you
(13:14):
three wishes. Like, you got todo your part. You know what I'm
saying. So ashwaran talks aboutit like this. He has, I mean, I
have over there, I'd show him toyou, but I have all of his
books, right? And one of his,one of his books that is one of
my favorite books, is a bookcalled Words To Live By. Words
To Live By. And I'm gonna, yeah,well, I'm not gonna mention it
(13:36):
right now, but okay, Words ToLive By. It's a daily guide to
leading an exceptional life.That's the book. And this is
what he said. And I love this.He says, All that you and I so
this is it starts with thequote, the grace of God is a
wind which is always blowing.That's Sri Ramakrishna. And this
is a Sharon's commentary onthat. He says, All that you and
I have to do is to put oursails, put up our sails, and let
(14:00):
the wind of grace carry usacross the sea of life to the
other shore, but most of us,this always makes me laugh, but
most of us are firmly stuck onthe shore.
Our sail is torn and our boat isoverloaded with excess baggage,
our likes and dislikes, ourhabits and opinions and all the
(14:22):
resentments and hostilitieswhich we have acquired right?
And this is what A Course inMiracles would say is like your
grievances, right? You can havea grievance and you can have a
miracle, but you cannot haveboth. Okay, he goes on to say
this, but just as it is weourselves who have acquired this
baggage, it is we who can alsogradually learn to toss it
(14:43):
overboard. Right? The wind isblowing, but we have to make our
boat seaworthy. Oh, my God, Ilove this. We can patch up our
sail and unfurl it to catch thewind that will carry us to the
other shore. Okay? So a lot oftimes, not only do we not even
have our sails raised, we alsohave a boat right, and we have a
(15:07):
sail that has holes in it, andwe have a boat that is not
seaworthy, it is not ready. Weare carrying all of this shit
from our past, all of those oldstories, the beliefs, the
identities, right, thoseexperiences that we had in our
earliest years in ourenvironment, the beliefs that we
started to create, the meaningthat we assigned to the awful,
(15:27):
traumatic things that happened,and the way that they can just
keep holding you down, manweighing you down so your boat
can't even get off the shore. Itis like moored. It is like
stuck, like the anchor is likestuck on the ground. It's not
even sea worthy this boat. So wegotta do some shit, like we have
to be proactive. And so much ofthe work that I do with people
(15:50):
is about this. It's like, howcan we create not only a nervous
system that is more resilientand resourceful and responsive,
right? But how can we, like, asa person, like, respond to life
from a place where we're notafraid, we're not as fearful,
because I said not as right,we're always going to have a
(16:11):
little fear that comes with thehuman experience. But how can I
show up in the world in a lessfearful way? How can I show up
from a place of love and moresafety? How can I respond to my
life and know that I have theinner resources to respond to
whatever life brings to my doorlike I am resourceful, I am
(16:32):
responsive, I am able right tobe able to like I trust myself
to know, like so much of thework that I do is like helping
people to let go of, and I don'tmean let go of like, Oh, it
didn't happen. And we pretendlike, no, it's like really
reimagining what's possible forus, rewriting those old stories
(16:52):
and like, like, literally givingourselves the tools that we need
so that we can navigate throughlife. This is like helping us to
set our sails. Number one,getting a sail, unburdening your
damn boat, right? Getting in theboat, having a sail that's
patched up so that it can blowyou where you actually want to
go, right, so you can have thekind of life and relationships
(17:16):
and etc, etc, right, that youthat you want to have. And it's
like we the wind is alwaysblowing, if the wind is always
blowing, and we're just sittingthere and we're not raising our
sails, opportunity just blowsright over our head.
Opportunities for love andcompassion and connection and
friendship and joy andplayfulness and creativity,
(17:37):
right? All the good stuff oflife just blows right on by,
because we don't even know firstof all that the wind is blowing.
Can't be bothered to even lookup, to recognize to go outside,
to get yourself in the elementof life, like, oh yeah, some
shit, some shit, some windsblowing. What do I want to do? I
want to raise my sail, and Iwant to use that energy to take
(17:58):
me where I want to go. I don'tknow about you, but I want to
right be using that current ofwind. And I can't always choose
which direction the wind isgoing to blow, but I can choose
how I'm going to adjust my sailto still get myself where I want
to go. And you know, I wasthinking about this, and I made
(18:18):
a few notes here, and it's like,we have to prepare, right? We
have to prepare. So if God'sgrace, or the universe's grace,
is constantly, like, availableto us, if it's always blowing,
it means that it's not dependenton, like, the mood of the day.
The winds of grace are alwaysblowing what's needed from us,
(18:43):
each person, each individual, wehave to prepare ourselves to be
able to catch that wind, toreceive the wind, and we do this
through our own efforts, our ownpreparedness, our own
willingness. Like to show up andto go, Hey, to notice, pay
attention. Enough like, oh yeah,the wind is blowing right. The
(19:05):
opportunities are there. There'slove all around me, there's
compassion all around me, thereis divine favor all around me.
But if we're not going to unfurlour sails, we're not gonna catch
jack shit, you know. Or we'rejust gonna keep choosing, right?
(19:29):
We're just gonna keep choosing,you know? And it is. I mean,
there's a thing, there's a thingthat we talk about, like, oh,
spiritual amnesia. Sometimes isa spiritual amnesia. We're like,
where we just kind of forget whowe are and to whom we belong.
But there's also what I can kindof jokingly call, like a little
spiritual laziness, where you'rejust not participatory. Like you
(19:50):
want an outcome, you want aparticular outcome, but like you
don't want to do the work to getthat outcome. You just want to
wish it into the atmosphere. Youjust want to wish it into the
ethos and expect. Like theangels to, like, float down on
their little wings. I'm makinglike, little flappy things,
like, I have little wings, andcome down and deliver it to you.
I'm like, No, hello, Queen ofSheba, you are not, you know
(20:11):
what I mean. So we can't beweighed down by all of our
nonsense, our likes, ourdislikes, our bullshit, our
baggage, our preference is like,you know, we got to be able, you
got to be able to adjust thosesales man, because they can take
us to some pretty incredibleplaces. That Divine Wind can
(20:32):
take us to some prettyincredible places, but we've got
to adjust our sails. So here'sthe thing again, it's an
invitation do it or don't do it.But I hope you do do it, because
when we sit down and spend sometime with ourselves, and we
start to get honest withourselves, and we start to look
at our lives, and we say, oh,like, how would I want this to
(20:55):
be different? Is something goingon in my life that I'm not happy
about if I'm not happy about it,right? We always and can't just
blame it on other people. It'syour life. It's your choices. We
got to take a look at our ownrole in things. And I love that.
You know, a lot of times peopleare afraid to look because
they're afraid to find out. Theythink, oh, it's all my fault,
and they feel guilty andashamed, and they do the blame
(21:16):
game on themselves. First, I'dlike to blame other people, and
then you get a certain amount ofspiritual maturity and you
realize, like, oh, you realize,like, Oh yeah, I'm the common
denominator and all the shit inmy life. I'm the captain of my
ship. Oh, my God. So I but Ilove that, because that means
that I actually do have somecontrol. I do have some will. I
(21:36):
do have some say, You know whatI mean? So this is, this is what
I'm saying. Like, I woke up andI heard in my head, you need to
adjust your sales. And so I tooka good look. I've been thinking
about it, right? I've beenthinking about it for the past
few days. And here's the thing,I'm taking action. I've already
taken action on a couple ofthings, which I'm really excited
about, you know? And I don'tspend time beating myself up.
(21:58):
That's not that interesting tome. It's not that I don't take
accountability, but, like, ifthere's other people, I would
need to make amends to, like,get that done, but with myself,
it's like, yeah, I get toadjust. And it's, it's spent
energy, it's wasted energy, justsitting there, like, wishing I
had been different three daysago or three months ago, or
whatever. I'm like, What can Ido now? The wind of grace is
(22:19):
blowing right now I'm going toraise my sale and I'm going to
adjust my sales accordingly, andthat's what I want to invite you
in to do too. Don't be afraid oftaking an inventory. Don't be
afraid of taking a look, anhonest look, at what's going
down in your life, in yourrelationships, in your bank
accounts, in the your habits,the ways that you're being
(22:39):
physically, mentally,emotionally and spiritually
and like, this is your life.Like you got to take it
seriously. We don't get to pushit all. Keep saying, Oh, well,
next year I'll do this, or wheni do when i Then I when I then
I, like, No, right now, rightnow. We got six weeks left to
this year. Let's sit our assesdown. Let's get out some fun
(23:01):
paper and pen, somehighlighters, some markers, some
crayons, right? Vision boarded,whatever you want to do, but
let's be honest about where wehaven't been raising our sales,
where we have holes in oursales, and where we need to
adjust our sales. Okay, sothat's my little love letter
from my heart to yours. I hopeit's been helpful to you in some
(23:21):
ways. And I believe thatRamakrishna also talks about the
sails, is like your mind, right?Like, like the winds of the
Divine, God's grace is alwaysblowing right above our heads.
But we have to raise our sails.We have to elevate our minds to
catch it. We got to catch thewind, right? So this is where I
always encourage you, if you donot have a DSP, a daily
(23:44):
spiritual practice, if you don'tspend any time kind of
contemplating, the deeper thethe more mystical the whatever
you want to the mysterious, thespiritual aspects of this human
this human experience, like weare. We are spiritual beings
having this human life, thishuman experience, we get to
experience ourselves and expressourselves. And what a gift,
(24:05):
right? So it's like, we got toraise ourselves. Part of this is
we got to elevate our minds,right? We got to go above like
this, like the baselineanimalistic like wants and not
wants and the likes and thedislikes and the grievances and
all that shit. It's like, No, wegot to kind of remember who we
are, right? Remember who youare, remember to whom you
belong. Catch that sale. We dothis through, you know, effort.
(24:30):
Efforts not a bad thing. We kindof shrink away from discipline
and effort. I'm going to talkabout that a numb boy. I gotta
keep writing myself littlenotes. Okay, these are good
things. These are good things.So, yeah, that's what I got for
you today. Okay, I love you. Iappreciate you so much.
Remember, you can always findout all the different ways to
(24:52):
connect with me, work with me,take a yoga class, take a
writing salon, like participateall of it right at. Karen
kenney.com it's k, e, n, n, e,y, right.com. All my stuff is on
there. And if you want to getthis in your inbox each week the
podcast, if you want to find outwhat I'm up to, I'm gonna have
(25:13):
some new things I'm doing in2026 so if you want to find out
what those shenanigans are, justget on my email list. Karen
kenney.com/sign up one word.Okay, thanks, you guys. I
appreciate you so much whereveryou go. May you leave yourself
in the people, in the place, inthe animals, in the planet
better than how you found itwherever you go. May you and
(25:35):
your presence and your love andyour energy and your sails and
the wind right. May the wind beat your back right, may it
wherever you go, may you beblessing. Bye. Hey, thanks so
much for listening to the show.I really love spending some time
together. Now, if you dig theshow or know someone that could
(25:56):
benefit from this episode,please share it with them and
help me to spread the good wordand the love. And if you want to
be in the know about all of myupcoming shenanigans, head on
over to Karen kenney.com/sign upand join my list. It'll be
wicked fun to stay in touch.Bye. You.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.