October 9, 2025 • 34 mins
EP334 – SOMEONE IS YOU
On this episode of The Karen Kenney Show, I talk about what happened when I finally decided to stop grumbling about the trash I kept seeing on my running route and actually do something about it!
I share how my sweetie and I run or walk in our rural neighborhood, and how seeing litter along the road always bugged me.
Instead of just judging others for it, I remembered my own past (hello, former cigarette-butt-flicker here! 🫣) and realized it was time to take action myself.
I also dive into the story of how a wicked fun childhood memory - being part of the Thompson Tigers Clean Team in fifth grade - came rushing back to me.
I even found my old “clean team” patch and wore it proudly as I set out with trash bags and gloves to clean up my neighborhood.
Along the way, I met some wonderful people, like Jessie, an older woman who told me she tries to "do a kindness every day", and who said I inspired her to go out and do the same at her end of the street. Yay!
That moment reminded me how our actions can ripple out and encourage others.
Throughout the episode, I reflect on how easy it is to focus on what others are doing wrong, but how much more powerful it is to look at what we can do ourselves to create change.
Inspired by a teaching from Swami Kripalu, I talk about the importance of focusing on strengthening new positive traits and virtues, rather than just fighting against the old negatives.
Whether it’s picking up trash, spreading kindness, or simply being a little more compassionate, we all have the power to make a difference - no matter how small it seems.
So, if you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “Someone ought to do something about that,” maybe that someone is you!
I encourage you to look for the good, "do a kindness", and leave every place and person a little better than you found them.
Thanks for tuning in, and if this episode inspired you, please share it with someone and help me spread a little more love in the world. ❤️
KK’S KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Noticing a problem in your community might be a sign that you’re the one to help fix it.
• Taking action, even in small ways (like picking up trash), can inspire others to do the same.
• It’s easy to judge others, but a little self-reflection can reveal our own past mistakes and help us to act with more compassion.
• Focusing on strengthening new positive traits and virtues - is way more effective than dwelling on past negative
• When you feel frustrated that “someone” should do something, remember that someone might be you
• Sharing positive actions and stories can encourage a ripple effect of goodness in your community.
• Everyday acts of kindness, no matter how small, can make a real difference for you, your family, your neighborhood and the greater world!
BIO:
Spiritual Mentor and writer Karen Kenney uses humor and dynamic storytelling to bring a down-to-earth, no-BS perspective to self-development.
Bringing together tools that coach the conscious and unconscious mind, Karen helps clients deepen their connections with Self, and discover their unique understandings of spirituality.
Her practice combines neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis, somatic work, spiritual mentoring, and other holistic modalities to help regulate the nervous system, examine internal narratives, remove blocks, and reimagine what’s possible.
A passionate yoga teacher, long-time student of A Course in Miracles, and Gateless Writing instructor, Karen is a frequent speaker and retreat leader. Via her programs The Quest and The Nest, she...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey you guys, welcome to theKaren Kenney show. I'm super
duper excited to be here withyou. And I just got done from
doing a little bit of a project,which I'm wicked excited to tell
you about. It kind of happenedin a weird, quirky way. Like all
things in my life tend to do. Ialways say s, t o, t, J,
spiritual team on the job. Okay,so let me just dive right into
(00:25):
this sucker. You might tell ifyou're watching this, I'm still
a little shiny and sweaty fromwhat I was just doing. Okay, so
my sweetie and I at least aboutfive days a week, we run. I he
runs. He runs like eight miles.I run walk, right? So I kind of
do whatever. But we have certainroutes that we tend to do. And
(00:47):
like anything, when you'rerunning a certain route
continuously, or often, you tendto see things if you're paying
attention, if you're not zoningout, right, like sometimes when
you're running like, you get inthe zone and you're hyper focus,
but a lot of times, if you'rejust even paying attention, you
will start to notice things. Andone of the things that I notice
(01:09):
along so there's differentroutes in my neighborhood that
that I run on, but there's oneparticular stretch of road
called Oak Hill Road, and welive off of that street, and I
often see trash, like, alongsidethe road, like in the bushes.
Now, it's a very wooded area,right? So it's like, not even
(01:31):
it's rural. I will say it'srural, it's not even Suburban. I
mean, like, you know, you getyour neighbors and stuff like
that, but we're out in thewoods, basically. And so I often
see like, trash and stuff on theside of the road, and like,
something inside of me, like, ifyou're watching my face right
now, like I'm like, gripping myfingers and I'm squinting one of
my eyes, like, oh, like, ithurts me. It hurts me when I see
(01:52):
trash on the ground. And youknow, the first, of course, the
first thing that the ego mindlikes to do is it likes to stop,
like, judging people and belike, Oh, those damn little bugs
and people just throwing shitout their windows. And how can
they do that? You get, like,wicked judgy, like, super duper
judgy in your head. And one ofthe things I had to stop myself
(02:14):
is ask myself, like, Well, hey,because whenever you're tempted,
this is a good exercise. PS,whenever you attempted to judge
other people, you know, ofcourse, in miracles, I'm
paraphrasing, of course, inmiracles kind of taught me, you
know, this, this thing, thisidea of, whenever you're tempted
to judge somebody else, askyourself, would I ever accuse
myself of the same thing?
(02:42):
Oh, my God. Like, have you Hey,hey, knucklehead, hey, judgy
mcjudgy pants over there. Haveyou ever done this, right? And I
remember back in the day when Iwas a smoker, you know, and we
would just flick, I'm doing thelittle flicking that we would
just flick our butts right outthe window, you know, like, and
we had no regard, we had noregard for Mother Earth, you
know? I mean, then obviously wegot a little smarter, hopefully,
(03:05):
and we started using ourashtrays in the car. And what's
so funny is, when you thinkabout it, it's like you had
ashtrays in cars back then,which probably sounds foreign to
some young people listening,right? We had ashtrays in cars.
And I'm like, so we had ashtraysin the car, and we still flicked
it out the window. Why? Becausewe didn't want the butts in our
car. Why? Because they were kindof gross, and it's like, oh,
(03:26):
okay, so we had the habit, andthen we would still flick our
butts out the window. Like, whatthe were we thinking? We weren't
thinking. That's the answer. Weweren't thinking. So whenever I
get a little tempted, a littleextra tempted to try to start
judging people, because this isjust what the ego mind does,
right? It loves to keep usseparate, like, from our
brothers and sisters, from, youknow, fellow beings. It loves to
(03:49):
keep us separate fromeverything, and it loves to keep
other people in guilt and shameand blame and then, because,
then we get to be right, and weget to be special. So I know the
racket that my ego likes to run.So I'm vigilant, right? Like, I
vigilant, like, I keep a wickedclose eye on that. Now, what I
will say about this, though, iswhat I found really interesting,
(04:09):
a couple of things that Ithought were really interesting.
The other thing, okay, well, theother thing is, we live in a
town where you have to bringyour trash yourself to the dump
in conced, you know, they havetrash pickup CON Kids. Whole
rack of concats got anotherwhole racket going on, because
they force the residents ofConcord to buy especially
colored garbage bags that youhave to go and buy. And they
(04:31):
cost a certain amount, andthat's the only way they'll pick
up your trash, is if you'reusing the purple trash bag. So
there's always something right.But anyways, we have to take our
trash to the dump. And I think,in fairness, what happens a lot
of the times is that peoplethrow their trash in the back of
their cabs of their trucks, andit blows out on the way to the
(04:52):
dump. Okay, but here's where itgets interesting. I thought this
was fascinating because I waslike, okay, stop judging. People
stop calling everybody litterbugs. Maybe it's because their
stuff is shit is blowing out ofthe back of their truck on the
way to the dump. But here'swhat's fascinating. Here's what
I discovered today. What Idiscovered today is I was
(05:16):
looking and watching. Is thatlike, Okay, imagine you're
driving up a road, and it's likea house, right, with a lawn with
a Yad, and then there's like alittle section of woods, and
then, like, you know, andthere's a culvert, like off the
road, like a culvert, like aditch, and, you know, there's
leaves and stuff in there, ofcourse. Then it's like the next
(05:37):
house, and then again, chunk ofwoods, culvert, Bubba, what I
find fascinating is, if stuff isblowing out of the back of
people's trucks, only air quotesonly, I find it quite
interesting. I think how. Howinteresting. I guess I'll just
stick with that word that thetrash only seems to blow out in
(06:00):
the sections where it's nobody'slawn and it's just a chunk of
woods. Now, one could argue thatmaybe, yeah, if it ends up on
somebody's lawn, they go out andpick it up, but I just think
it's interesting, and so I know,I know that a fair amount of
people are chucking shit rightout the window, whether it's
laziness. They don't give ashit. They don't know any
(06:23):
better. They aren't aware itblew out, whatever. Okay. Now
the reason why I'm telling youall of this is that when I Okay,
so I run this route, I see thetrash. And what do we all do as
humans? We'll see something thatwe don't like. Well, whether we
see something that is just, wedon't like it, or it's unfair,
(06:47):
or there's no justice, orsomething is happening to an
animal, a person, a place, andwe're like, that's not right.
That's not right. Someone shoulddo something, someone ought to
do something now, double A men.Hands me, if you have uttered
these words at some point inyour life, that's not right,
(07:10):
that's not fair, that's notgood, that's fucked up. Somebody
ought to do something. Someoneneeds to do something. Okay,
well, as I was like running thisroute and seeing this trash. And
I had that thought, someoneought to do something. And then
it occurs to me, Well, someoneis you. Someone is you, meaning
(07:38):
me. I was like, Okay, I'm gonnado this, and here's what I think
about this, and we're gonna getwe're gonna get it like, so stay
with me. Okay, I often will sayto myself, whoever is awake,
whoever is aware and whoever isable, gets to do something. Now,
the very first thing that Iknow, like, rumbles up inside of
(08:02):
people. And I was going to callthe episode, you know, being the
bigger person, or the biggerperson, right? So often people
will see things and or be, like,in conflict with somebody, or
there's something going on theydon't like. And it's almost like
an adult tantrum, right? We putit's like putting your hands on
(08:23):
your hips and stomping yourfeet, and it's like, Why do I
always have to be the biggerperson? Why do I always have to
be the one that does X, Y and Z?Why do I always have to be the
one that says sorry first, andwhy do I always have to be the
one? No? Why? Because whoeveris, of course, in Miracle says
whoever is Sana at the time,whoever is Santa at the time. To
(08:46):
me, this is like whoever isclocking the thing, whoever
notices the thing, so whoever isawake and aware and is paying
attention and is able to dosomething about it. Why not you,
and so often. Again, it's just aracket of the ego. The ego is
(09:07):
like, Why do I have to do it?Why? Because you're the one who
saw it, you're the one whorecognized it, and you're the
one who's bothered by it. So meas I'm like, again, running this
route and seeing that, like thecans and like, all this stuff. I
was like, That's it. I'm gonnado something about it. And then,
you guys, it was like, thismagical portal in my brain
(09:32):
opened up, and I was like, Oh myGod. And I had this memory. Now,
when I was in, like, the fourthand fifth grade. I went to a
school called the Thompsonschool. So I grew up in Lawrence
mass, and then there were a fewyears where we moved to North
Andover, and then we moved rightback to Lawrence. But during
those years, I spent two ofthose years at the Thompson
(09:55):
School of North Andover. Now I'mpretty sure it was in fifth
grade. In fifth grade I had,like, one. Of the best teachers
I've ever had in my life. I'vehad a handful of those, Mr.
Kellen. Mr. Mike Kellen. Iloved, like, loved Mr. Kellen. I
just thought he was the bee'sknees, he was the cat's pajamas,
he was the cat's meow. Like, Iloved Mr. Kellen. And I don't
(10:17):
know if it was Mr. Kellen thatstarted it, but I think it was.
But here's what I remember, allof a sudden, you guys, as I'm
thinking about this trash andcleaning up the trash, and
somebody's gonna do it, maybethat someone is you. All of a
sudden, I would hear in my headthe Thompson Tigers clean team.
And it was like, Oh my God. Youknow how all of a sudden you
(10:37):
remember something from yourchildhood? And I'm like, I'm
grinning like an idiot rightnow, I was so excited. So in
fifth grade, I think it was Mr.Kellyn, or it was a teacher
initiative or a schoolinitiative, but I see his brain
burned on it. You know, his faceburned on my brain. We started
the Thompson Tigers clean team,and we even got little patches
(11:00):
Okay, we got these little roundpatches, had little Tigers on
them. And I thought to myself,Oh, my God. And then we would go
out in the neighborhood and,like, we would clean things up.
And, like, we got the thing. Itwas like, if you see something
on the side of the road, pieceof trash, like, pick it up. And
that's like, you it's almostlike, you know, I was never in
the Girl Scouts or the BoyScouts or anything like that.
But this was like that, like yougot a patch. And here's the
(11:22):
thing, you guys, I keep I, Iliterally do not know. I amazed.
I'm amazed by this. I honestlyam amazed by this. By the time I
was like, 40, I had moved 38times. My childhood was a shit
show. We moved so often. Andthen after my mother died, and,
like, all these things happened,and I have no idea, through
(11:45):
college and moving to Californiaand moving like, I have no idea
how I've kept things, but I havea box, and in that box I have,
like, my projects from like,sixth grade with Mrs. Karen at
the Weatherby. I have stufffrom, like, I have stuff going
(12:06):
all the way back. And you guys,I just knew in my heart of hats,
I said to my sweetie. I waslike, sweetie, I was on the
Thompson Tigers clean team, andI had a patch, and it was on a
jacket. And I'm pretty sure, I'mpretty sure I still have that
patch. And I'm like, I'm gonnago see so I go in the closet, I
find the bin, I go inside, andyou guys, I found my Thompson
(12:29):
Tigers clean team patch,
and I was it. I even wasdescribing to him. I was like,
it was white and had like a navytiger on it, and it had like
gold, you know, trim around,whatever. Okay, I'm gonna hold
it up for those of you watching,look at you guys, the Thompson
Tigers Queen team. I still haveit. So today I'm such a dork, I
(12:53):
admit it. I don't care. I'm sucha such a little weirdo. I was
like, I'm gonna put my patch onand I'm going to go out into my
neighborhood, and I'm going togo pick up all of those cans and
all of those things that I haveseen on my run. So that's what I
did. So we walk the dogs. Ituck, I basically tuck two trash
(13:13):
bags in the back of my pants. Igot gloves, you know? I got my
gloves. We walked the dogs tothe end of our road, and then I
just walked up and down Oak HillRoad, because it's really we
just had a cleanup day on ourstreet where our neighborhood,
in our neighborhood, we we liveon a private dirt road. The town
does not maintain our road, sothe neighbors all do it and
(13:34):
stuff like that. So we just gottogether this past weekend,
actually on my birthday. So wewent out as neighbors, and we
get our street ready, because wegot to grade it and then roll
it, because it's dirt, the wholething. So we just did our
cleanup. So there was reallynothing on our street to do. So
I went out into Oak Hill, and Iwalked up and down it with my
trash bags. And you guys, I shityou not. I picked up two full
(14:00):
size garbage bags of trash. Andyou want to know what else is
interesting, besides me feelingI was just so excited that I was
being a Thompson Tiger cleanteam member again. So here we
are like, what? 47 maybe 48years later, no, even less than
(14:24):
that, maybe four, maybe 50 yearslater, I was out there cleaning
stuff up. I had my little patch,I had my my gear on. I was so
excited. But one of the thingsthat I noticed, besides noticing
that the trash just kind ofmagically seems to appear in the
sections where there's nothouses. So you just know, some
(14:45):
people just Huck and shit. WhatI found fascinating is 90% of
what I picked up was alcoholcans in bottles, beer cans and
bottles like alcohol, likeliquor, like people had gone to
the Packy and got. Themselvessome booze. I was like, why is
it that we and I was like, and Istarted laughing. I was like,
(15:06):
America, we have a drinkingproblem. Hello, hello. Anybody,
anybody out there? And I waslike, wow, it was just crazy.
They were like, nips. They werelike, quart size bottles. They
were, I was like, vodka. Like,remember the shape of Mad Dog?
2020, there were some of thosebottles. There was, I found all
kinds of stuff, but two trashbags full. And I was thinking to
(15:30):
myself, first of all, I was justso happy to be doing it. But
what was awesome? While I wasout there doing this, I bumped
into a few people. So I was nowcoming down Oak Hill. It's like,
this steep hill, and there wasan older woman, probably like,
in her late 70s, early 80s, outthere doing her walk. And I had
my ear buds in listening to someFleetwood Mac, you know, as I
(15:51):
was doing this stuff, and she'sI could tell that she was
talking to me, but I couldn'thear so I popped out my ear buds
and I said, Hi, and she's like,and she's like, she literally,
kind of like, hands on her hips.She's like, Can you believe how
people just lit up and throwstuff out of their cars? And I
(16:11):
said, I know. I said, it'sawful. And I said, but here's
the thing. I go we also live ina town where we have to take our
trash. So I explained it to her.We live in this town where we
have to take our trash, as youknow, like to the dump, and
sometimes it probably blows outof the back of of people's cars
and stuff. She's like, I know,but there's just so much of it.
(16:31):
And I said, I know. I said, Iagree. I go. And I gotta tell
you, I've seen it a bunch oftimes. And I finally was just
like, someone has to dosomething. And I said, and today
that someone is me. And she saidto me, Well, you she's so cute.
First of all, in her little walkin shorts, she had white hair,
she was adorable. And she'slike, well, I said, What's your
(16:52):
name? And she said, Jesse. And Isaid, Hi, Jesse. I'm Karen. And
and she said, Well, you'veinspired me, Karen. And I was
like, yay. Like, I was soexcited. And she said, I live
down there. She told me herhouse number. She's like, I'm in
the Concord line. So the OakHill basically turns from loud
and into Concord. I live, like,a mile from the Concord line,
(17:13):
right? So I I'm like, and shetells me your house number. So
I'm like, Wow. She takes wickedlong walks. She was far from her
house, and she said, she said,the most beautiful thing, and
this is what I want to I wantedto tell you. She says, Every day
I have to find a kindness. She'slike, every day I have to do a
kindness. She goes in today,this is going to be my kindness.
(17:36):
And she said it again, you'veinspired me. And I was just
like, tickled pink. I was justso excited, first of all, to
just know that another personwas going to be out there
cleaning up her neighborhoodtoo, her end of the street,
right? And that's the thing.It's like we got to clean up our
own ends of the street. And I'veoften said this to my clients.
(17:58):
You know, it's so easy to bitchabout people out there, you
know, so often. And this isliterally the analogy that I'll
use. I'll say, you know, it's sointeresting. We'll stand in our
front yard, and we'll look outin like, meaning, look out onto
the street, or at our neighbors,or the rest of the world, right?
And we'll say, you know, there'sjust shit everywhere. They're
(18:20):
just letting their shit goeverywhere, meaning, you know,
their their opinions, theirbehaviors, their bullshit, the
stuff that they do that youdon't like. And would just be
like, they're just letting theirshit go everywhere. Look at it.
It's a mess. And I'm like, andthe one thing that they're not
even looking at is, if theyturned around and looked in
their own backyard, they'd seethat their garbage cans, the
lids were off, and it was theirshit that was blowing into the
(18:43):
street. We're so focused on whatother people are doing or doing
wrong or not doing to ourstandard or not meeting our
preferences or whatever, it's soeasy to focus on other people
that we have our own blindspots, and we don't even
recognize that the trash iscoming from us. The trash is
coming from our own, yet thegarbage is coming from us. And
(19:07):
I'm pointing at my head thegarbage. It's like the calls are
coming from inside the house,right? And so, and I was like,
rather than focusing on whateverybody else isn't getting
right, what everybody else isdoing wrong. We can be the
change. We can do somethingdifferently. Again, whoever is
aware and awake and payingattention and is able right, you
(19:31):
have the means, you have theenergy, you have the ability.
Whatever it is, if you can doit, why not have you do
something about it? And it gotme to think about how you know
so often, and especially rightnow, and I say especially right
now, knowing that there havebeen other times in history when
(19:52):
it has been a colossal shitshow, we can, like, pick up a
book. I'm not being fresh, butliterally, pick up a book and
read. About our history, and youwill see there have been times
when there have been famines anddroughts and, like, the Spanish
flu and the depression, and justlike, you know, slave or like,
(20:14):
just look at, look at slavery.And just, you know, stealing the
land from indigenous people youjust look at throughout history,
there's always times when we cansay now more than ever, right?
It feels that way, like rightnow. It feels like we want to
say now more than ever. Butthere have always been moments
throughout history andthroughout time when it has been
(20:36):
just Civil War, right?Overwhelmingly awful. But
individuals, right? This is whenyou think about the collective,
when you think about, again, afamily, a neighborhood, a city,
a culture, a government,whatever, all that it's made up
of is individuals. And there's athere's always enough trash, I
(20:58):
always say shit that goes on inthe world, whether it's starving
children or sex trafficking orracist Christian nationalism
ideology or people like, youknow, like being awful towards
trans people, LGBTQIA, whatever,the reason why these Things go
(21:20):
why we have an alligatorAlcatraz is because enough
individuals are okay with it.
That's how we end up, quote,unquote here with things being a
shit show, is because enoughpeople are okay with it, or
believe in it or want it thatway. So when we see things that
(21:44):
we don't like, there are goingto be times when you can't do
anything about it. What can youdo when you see things that you
don't like, right? Like, you canspeak up, you can vote, you can
make phone calls. You canintervene when it's like smart
to do so, etc, etc, so we haveto do that, but a lot of times,
(22:04):
what happens is it's really easyto focus on what we don't like.
It's really easy to focus on thequote, unquote bad people, or
the other ones, or the otherside or whatever, and it's so
easy to get caught up in whateverybody else is doing that you
(22:26):
forget that you have someindividual power, that you too
have autonomy and agency andauthorship and the ability to
there's another a word I wantedto say, autonomy, agency,
authorship and authority, right,where you can get some shit done
too. And I often say to people,you know, if, if, if there's
(22:50):
nobody else around who's gonnafix it or whatever or change it,
what can you do? You know? AndI've had people you know say
like, oh, somebody, you know, Iwish somebody else would run for
office. I've had people say tome, like, why don't you run for
office? And I say, oh, no, no.I'm like, I'm not a politician.
I use my big mouth in otherways. But hey, why not you
(23:14):
running for office? If that'ssomething that, like you're
capable of and into and want tomake change, right? There's a
lot of ways to make change inthe world. But here's what I
wanted to say, while we'refocusing on the negative or the
bad or, quote, unquote, thosepeople, we lose sight of our own
power. We lose sight of the waysthat we can make a difference
(23:37):
and we can make a change. And Iwas thinking about something
that Swami Kripalu taught me. Imean, he taught, he taught
anybody who was learning fromhim. But Bapu Ji, as we call
him, the word Kripalu meanscompassion. Swami Kripalu, if
you've ever heard of theKripalu, you know, Center for
yoga and health out in theBerkshires, out in Western Mass.
(23:57):
I'm a Kripalu Yoga teacher. AndSwami Kripalu taught us that the
best way to improve yourself orthe best way to remove something
that you don't like or thatyou've been fighting with or
grappling with personally,right? So we're going to look at
this first personally. SwamiKripalu taught that the best way
to improve ourselves or toremove something that we don't
(24:21):
like or that we've beengrappling with or fighting with,
is not to dwell on the fault. Isto not to dwell on the bad
thing, right? That's like lostenergy. That's like spend
energy, don't put your focus onthe thing that you actually are
trying to grapple with or fightor change. What you want to
focus on and what you want tostrengthen is the opposite
positive character trait andvirtue. You put your focus on
(24:47):
the way that you want to be. Youput your focus on the way that
you want things to be. You don'tkeep staring at and focusing on
and putting your energy on thebad thing, the negative thing,
the thing you. Like you put yourawareness, your attention, your
strength and your focus. If youwant to strengthen that's what
you want to do. You want tostrengthen the opposite,
(25:09):
positive character trait orvirtue. That's where you put
your energy. And this works, inmy opinion, both on the
individual level and on thelevel of the world, the greater,
right, the greater expansion ofthose individuals. So for me,
it's like, if I if I'm like, Ohmy God, there's so much fear in
(25:30):
the world and there's so muchhatred and there's so much this,
and there's so much division andthere's so much separation. I'm
like, Okay, I'm going to put myfocus on creating moments in my
individual life, and maybe inthe groups that I run, in the
nest or in my yoga classes, orin when I do a workshop or when
I speak or whatever, then whatI'm going to do is really focus
(25:50):
on the opposite of the that. I'mgoing to focus instead of on
fear. I'm going to focus on loveinstead of focusing on anxiety
and worry and oh my god, I'mgoing to focus on love and
community and connection andcompassion and kindness and
mercy and grace and forgiveness.I'm going to focus on the
opposite, the positive virtueand character traits. That's how
(26:15):
we change shit is not lamentingand feeling helpless and
hopeless and going, oh my god,no. You see the fucking can in
the street. You pick it up. Yousee a hungry kid make him a
sandwich. See somebodystruggling, offer them a helping
hand, again, if you are aware,awake, paying attention and able
to that's the gig. The gig is tospread more love. The gig is to
(26:40):
get better at giving andreceiving more love, right? And
that can take 1000 forms, butthat's where we want to put our
positive attention and energy.That's what we want to
strengthen. And Swami karpaluhad a quote that was just so
simple and so perfect. And I dida whole podcast on this before,
but in case you didn't hear it,he says, don't fight the
(27:02):
darkness, turn on the light andbreathe into the goodness that
you are. Don't fight thedarkness, turn on the light,
breathe into the goodness thatyou are. And so that's what I've
been thinking about this pastweek, in the past few days, and
(27:23):
I got to tell you, it feltreally good like I'm holding up
my little patch again. It feltreally good to be a part of the
Thompson Tigers clean teamtoday. It felt really good to
know that when I go out thereand do my run a little bit, that
I'm not going to see those blueBud Light beer, you know, cans
and the Arizona iced tea cansand the bottles and the trash
bags and all the shit. I mean,you guys, I picked up today two
(27:46):
full size trash bags full ofstuff, and this was just on,
like, a mile and a mile or so ofroadside. So can you imagine,
can you imagine if one or twopeople in their neighborhood, in
your community, went out one daywhen they had some extra time,
and you took their trash bagsand picked up like, what a
(28:08):
difference it would make in yourneighborhood, in your community.
And I'm not saying that's whatyou have to do. You might have
another idea. You might be like,I want to build a community
garden, or I want to volunteerat the shelter, or I want to do
something, because this is whatwe want to focus on. Whenever
you hear yourself muttering,someone ought to do something.
What if that someone is youlike? How cool is that? So
(28:33):
here's what I'm going to leaveyou with. Ask yourself this
question, what's somethingthat's been bugging me? Right?
So what's something that's beenbugging you, what's something
that you've noticed, what'ssomething that kind of irks you
or rubs you the wrong way, oryou think to yourself, Man,
somebody ought to really dosomething about that. And then,
(28:56):
once you know what that thingis, ask yourself, What can I do?
What can I do? Because if you'reawake and you're aware and you
noticed it, because you werepaying attention, right, and
you're able to whether you havethe means, the resources, the
time, the energy, the health,whatever it is that you can do
something, why not do it? Whatif that someone today is you,
(29:21):
and you don't know, you might,you might inspire somebody. You
might inspire somebody. You knowanother guy saw me, an older
gentleman. He saw me like withmy two trash bags, like walking
up the street. One was alreadyfull, so it was like I was Santa
Clausing it while I had theother one. And I had to keep
walking down into these ditches.So I also had a walking pole,
(29:43):
like I found a big stick, and Iwas using it for leverage,
because I had to keep climbingin and out of these ditches. And
I was all sweaty and shit. Andhe saw me, and he pulled over,
and he's like, hey, it's trashday, you know? Because today's
one of the days we go the dump.And I was like, Yeah, I know.
And he's like, You got trash?And I was like. Well, it's not
my I said, I'm just picking upstuff on the side of the road.
(30:03):
And he's like, so he pulled overspecifically to help me if I
needed it. And when I told him Iwas all set, I said, My sweetie
is going to come get me and pickme up, he spun his car around,
and when it was truck, and whenhe pulled up next to me, old,
old, older gentleman, and hepulled up next to me, and he
said, I just want to say thankyou so much for cleaning up our
neighborhood, and it was sosweet. It was so nice. And it
(30:23):
gave me, of course, it just madethe little kid in me, like, so
happy, like I had my littlepatch, and I was like, Yeah,
I'm such a joke. I know. Allright, you guys, that's what I
got for you today, right? Thisis one of those things, like,
when I say at the end of theshow all the time, like wherever
you go, leave yourself and thepeople in the place and the
(30:43):
animals in the environmentbetter than how you find it
wherever you go, like May you bea blessing. This is it. This is
the work. It's like Jesse sayingevery day, right? Every day I
try to do a kindness. Every dayI try to find a kindness and do
a kindness. And that is good,that right? There is, I think,
something we could all do everyday. I think she just said, do a
kindness. But I think my brainis saying, also find a kindness.
(31:06):
But I think every day it wouldbehoove us right to look for the
good, the beautiful and theholy. Look find a kindness and
do a kindness. That's the motto.That's what I'm leaving you with
today, right? So remember,remember, if there's something
out there that's rubbing you thewrong way, if there's something
out there and it, like I said,it could be as big as you
deciding to run for office toI'm going to start a little, you
(31:30):
know, a little thing where webring new neighbors cookies. I
don't know what it could be,anything in between, but just
keep in mind that someone mightbe you. Someone is you? All
right, you guys, have afantastic rest of your week.
Whenever you're listening tothis, I appreciate you spending
some time with me. I really do.If you found this episode
(31:53):
beneficial or helpful in someway, please share it with
somebody you love. Please shareit with somebody you care about.
Maybe it will inspire them tojust help me to spread the love
I always appreciate that somuch. And as of course, I'd be
remiss to not let you know ifyou want to join a spiritual
(32:13):
community right now, people whoare like working on themselves,
trying to spread more love inthe world as well. That's what
the nest is all about. Myspiritual mentoring group and
community 50 bucks a month. Youcan just sign up at Karen Kenney
slash the nest, or just KarenKenney nest, N, E, S, T, Karen
kenney.com/nest and then I workwith people one to one as well,
(32:34):
Karen kenney.com/quest and youcan just go to my website to see
all the shenanigans things Ihave going on. And then also, if
you ever want to support theshow, I have a little tip jar,
and it's just Karenkenney.com/tip job. And I
appreciate anything. There's noobligation. But if you love to
support the show, and my effortsof getting this show out into
(32:55):
the world every week, episode335, I can't even believe it.
Over six years, we've been doingthis and taking this ride
together. So thank you. Allright, wherever you go, leave
your people and the place andthe animals and the environment
and yourself better than how youfound it. Wherever you go, may
you and your energy and yourpresence and your love and your
I don't know your your Thompsontigers, clean team spirit. Oh,
(33:21):
my God be a blessing. Bye, bye.
Hey you guys, welcome to theKaren Kenney show. I'm super
duper excited to be here withyou. And I just got done from
doing a little bit of a project,which I'm wicked excited to tell
you about. It kind of happenedin a weird, quirky way. Like all
things in my life tend to do. Ialways say s, t o, t, J,
spiritual team on the job. Okay,so let me just dive right into
(00:25):
this sucker. You might tell ifyou're watching this, I'm still
a little shiny and sweaty fromwhat I was just doing. Okay, so
my sweetie and I at least aboutfive days a week, we run. I he
runs. He runs like eight miles.I run walk, right? So I kind of
do whatever. But we have certainroutes that we tend to do. And
(00:47):
like anything, when you'rerunning a certain route
continuously, or often, you tendto see things if you're paying
attention, if you're not zoningout, right, like sometimes when
you're running like, you get inthe zone and you're hyper focus,
but a lot of times, if you'rejust even paying attention, you
will start to notice things. Andone of the things that I notice
(01:09):
along so there's differentroutes in my neighborhood that
that I run on, but there's oneparticular stretch of road
called Oak Hill Road, and welive off of that street, and I
often see trash, like, alongsidethe road, like in the bushes.
Now, it's a very wooded area,right? So it's like, not even
(01:31):
it's rural. I will say it'srural, it's not even Suburban. I
mean, like, you know, you getyour neighbors and stuff like
that, but we're out in thewoods, basically. And so I often
see like, trash and stuff on theside of the road, and like,
something inside of me, like, ifyou're watching my face right
now, like I'm like, gripping myfingers and I'm squinting one of
my eyes, like, oh, like, ithurts me. It hurts me when I see
(01:52):
trash on the ground. And youknow, the first, of course, the
first thing that the ego mindlikes to do is it likes to stop,
like, judging people and belike, Oh, those damn little bugs
and people just throwing shitout their windows. And how can
they do that? You get, like,wicked judgy, like, super duper
judgy in your head. And one ofthe things I had to stop myself
(02:14):
is ask myself, like, Well, hey,because whenever you're tempted,
this is a good exercise. PS,whenever you attempted to judge
other people, you know, ofcourse, in miracles, I'm
paraphrasing, of course, inmiracles kind of taught me, you
know, this, this thing, thisidea of, whenever you're tempted
to judge somebody else, askyourself, would I ever accuse
myself of the same thing?
(02:42):
Oh, my God. Like, have you Hey,hey, knucklehead, hey, judgy
mcjudgy pants over there. Haveyou ever done this, right? And I
remember back in the day when Iwas a smoker, you know, and we
would just flick, I'm doing thelittle flicking that we would
just flick our butts right outthe window, you know, like, and
we had no regard, we had noregard for Mother Earth, you
know? I mean, then obviously wegot a little smarter, hopefully,
(03:05):
and we started using ourashtrays in the car. And what's
so funny is, when you thinkabout it, it's like you had
ashtrays in cars back then,which probably sounds foreign to
some young people listening,right? We had ashtrays in cars.
And I'm like, so we had ashtraysin the car, and we still flicked
it out the window. Why? Becausewe didn't want the butts in our
car. Why? Because they were kindof gross, and it's like, oh,
(03:26):
okay, so we had the habit, andthen we would still flick our
butts out the window. Like, whatthe were we thinking? We weren't
thinking. That's the answer. Weweren't thinking. So whenever I
get a little tempted, a littleextra tempted to try to start
judging people, because this isjust what the ego mind does,
right? It loves to keep usseparate, like, from our
brothers and sisters, from, youknow, fellow beings. It loves to
(03:49):
keep us separate fromeverything, and it loves to keep
other people in guilt and shameand blame and then, because,
then we get to be right, and weget to be special. So I know the
racket that my ego likes to run.So I'm vigilant, right? Like, I
vigilant, like, I keep a wickedclose eye on that. Now, what I
will say about this, though, iswhat I found really interesting,
(04:09):
a couple of things that Ithought were really interesting.
The other thing, okay, well, theother thing is, we live in a
town where you have to bringyour trash yourself to the dump
in conced, you know, they havetrash pickup CON Kids. Whole
rack of concats got anotherwhole racket going on, because
they force the residents ofConcord to buy especially
colored garbage bags that youhave to go and buy. And they
(04:31):
cost a certain amount, andthat's the only way they'll pick
up your trash, is if you'reusing the purple trash bag. So
there's always something right.But anyways, we have to take our
trash to the dump. And I think,in fairness, what happens a lot
of the times is that peoplethrow their trash in the back of
their cabs of their trucks, andit blows out on the way to the
(04:52):
dump. Okay, but here's where itgets interesting. I thought this
was fascinating because I waslike, okay, stop judging. People
stop calling everybody litterbugs. Maybe it's because their
stuff is shit is blowing out ofthe back of their truck on the
way to the dump. But here'swhat's fascinating. Here's what
I discovered today. What Idiscovered today is I was
(05:16):
looking and watching. Is thatlike, Okay, imagine you're
driving up a road, and it's likea house, right, with a lawn with
a Yad, and then there's like alittle section of woods, and
then, like, you know, andthere's a culvert, like off the
road, like a culvert, like aditch, and, you know, there's
leaves and stuff in there, ofcourse. Then it's like the next
(05:37):
house, and then again, chunk ofwoods, culvert, Bubba, what I
find fascinating is, if stuff isblowing out of the back of
people's trucks, only air quotesonly, I find it quite
interesting. I think how. Howinteresting. I guess I'll just
stick with that word that thetrash only seems to blow out in
(06:00):
the sections where it's nobody'slawn and it's just a chunk of
woods. Now, one could argue thatmaybe, yeah, if it ends up on
somebody's lawn, they go out andpick it up, but I just think
it's interesting, and so I know,I know that a fair amount of
people are chucking shit rightout the window, whether it's
laziness. They don't give ashit. They don't know any
(06:23):
better. They aren't aware itblew out, whatever. Okay. Now
the reason why I'm telling youall of this is that when I Okay,
so I run this route, I see thetrash. And what do we all do as
humans? We'll see something thatwe don't like. Well, whether we
see something that is just, wedon't like it, or it's unfair,
(06:47):
or there's no justice, orsomething is happening to an
animal, a person, a place, andwe're like, that's not right.
That's not right. Someone shoulddo something, someone ought to
do something now, double A men.Hands me, if you have uttered
these words at some point inyour life, that's not right,
(07:10):
that's not fair, that's notgood, that's fucked up. Somebody
ought to do something. Someoneneeds to do something. Okay,
well, as I was like running thisroute and seeing this trash. And
I had that thought, someoneought to do something. And then
it occurs to me, Well, someoneis you. Someone is you, meaning
(07:38):
me. I was like, Okay, I'm gonnado this, and here's what I think
about this, and we're gonna getwe're gonna get it like, so stay
with me. Okay, I often will sayto myself, whoever is awake,
whoever is aware and whoever isable, gets to do something. Now,
the very first thing that Iknow, like, rumbles up inside of
(08:02):
people. And I was going to callthe episode, you know, being the
bigger person, or the biggerperson, right? So often people
will see things and or be, like,in conflict with somebody, or
there's something going on theydon't like. And it's almost like
an adult tantrum, right? We putit's like putting your hands on
(08:23):
your hips and stomping yourfeet, and it's like, Why do I
always have to be the biggerperson? Why do I always have to
be the one that does X, Y and Z?Why do I always have to be the
one that says sorry first, andwhy do I always have to be the
one? No? Why? Because whoeveris, of course, in Miracle says
whoever is Sana at the time,whoever is Santa at the time. To
(08:46):
me, this is like whoever isclocking the thing, whoever
notices the thing, so whoever isawake and aware and is paying
attention and is able to dosomething about it. Why not you,
and so often. Again, it's just aracket of the ego. The ego is
(09:07):
like, Why do I have to do it?Why? Because you're the one who
saw it, you're the one whorecognized it, and you're the
one who's bothered by it. So meas I'm like, again, running this
route and seeing that, like thecans and like, all this stuff. I
was like, That's it. I'm gonnado something about it. And then,
you guys, it was like, thismagical portal in my brain
(09:32):
opened up, and I was like, Oh myGod. And I had this memory. Now,
when I was in, like, the fourthand fifth grade. I went to a
school called the Thompsonschool. So I grew up in Lawrence
mass, and then there were a fewyears where we moved to North
Andover, and then we moved rightback to Lawrence. But during
those years, I spent two ofthose years at the Thompson
(09:55):
School of North Andover. Now I'mpretty sure it was in fifth
grade. In fifth grade I had,like, one. Of the best teachers
I've ever had in my life. I'vehad a handful of those, Mr.
Kellen. Mr. Mike Kellen. Iloved, like, loved Mr. Kellen. I
just thought he was the bee'sknees, he was the cat's pajamas,
he was the cat's meow. Like, Iloved Mr. Kellen. And I don't
(10:17):
know if it was Mr. Kellen thatstarted it, but I think it was.
But here's what I remember, allof a sudden, you guys, as I'm
thinking about this trash andcleaning up the trash, and
somebody's gonna do it, maybethat someone is you. All of a
sudden, I would hear in my headthe Thompson Tigers clean team.
And it was like, Oh my God. Youknow how all of a sudden you
(10:37):
remember something from yourchildhood? And I'm like, I'm
grinning like an idiot rightnow, I was so excited. So in
fifth grade, I think it was Mr.Kellyn, or it was a teacher
initiative or a schoolinitiative, but I see his brain
burned on it. You know, his faceburned on my brain. We started
the Thompson Tigers clean team,and we even got little patches
(11:00):
Okay, we got these little roundpatches, had little Tigers on
them. And I thought to myself,Oh, my God. And then we would go
out in the neighborhood and,like, we would clean things up.
And, like, we got the thing. Itwas like, if you see something
on the side of the road, pieceof trash, like, pick it up. And
that's like, you it's almostlike, you know, I was never in
the Girl Scouts or the BoyScouts or anything like that.
But this was like that, like yougot a patch. And here's the
(11:22):
thing, you guys, I keep I, Iliterally do not know. I amazed.
I'm amazed by this. I honestlyam amazed by this. By the time I
was like, 40, I had moved 38times. My childhood was a shit
show. We moved so often. Andthen after my mother died, and,
like, all these things happened,and I have no idea, through
(11:45):
college and moving to Californiaand moving like, I have no idea
how I've kept things, but I havea box, and in that box I have,
like, my projects from like,sixth grade with Mrs. Karen at
the Weatherby. I have stufffrom, like, I have stuff going
(12:06):
all the way back. And you guys,I just knew in my heart of hats,
I said to my sweetie. I waslike, sweetie, I was on the
Thompson Tigers clean team, andI had a patch, and it was on a
jacket. And I'm pretty sure, I'mpretty sure I still have that
patch. And I'm like, I'm gonnago see so I go in the closet, I
find the bin, I go inside, andyou guys, I found my Thompson
(12:29):
Tigers clean team patch,
and I was it. I even wasdescribing to him. I was like,
it was white and had like a navytiger on it, and it had like
gold, you know, trim around,whatever. Okay, I'm gonna hold
it up for those of you watching,look at you guys, the Thompson
Tigers Queen team. I still haveit. So today I'm such a dork, I
(12:53):
admit it. I don't care. I'm sucha such a little weirdo. I was
like, I'm gonna put my patch onand I'm going to go out into my
neighborhood, and I'm going togo pick up all of those cans and
all of those things that I haveseen on my run. So that's what I
did. So we walk the dogs. Ituck, I basically tuck two trash
(13:13):
bags in the back of my pants. Igot gloves, you know? I got my
gloves. We walked the dogs tothe end of our road, and then I
just walked up and down Oak HillRoad, because it's really we
just had a cleanup day on ourstreet where our neighborhood,
in our neighborhood, we we liveon a private dirt road. The town
does not maintain our road, sothe neighbors all do it and
(13:34):
stuff like that. So we just gottogether this past weekend,
actually on my birthday. So wewent out as neighbors, and we
get our street ready, because wegot to grade it and then roll
it, because it's dirt, the wholething. So we just did our
cleanup. So there was reallynothing on our street to do. So
I went out into Oak Hill, and Iwalked up and down it with my
trash bags. And you guys, I shityou not. I picked up two full
(14:00):
size garbage bags of trash. Andyou want to know what else is
interesting, besides me feelingI was just so excited that I was
being a Thompson Tiger cleanteam member again. So here we
are like, what? 47 maybe 48years later, no, even less than
(14:24):
that, maybe four, maybe 50 yearslater, I was out there cleaning
stuff up. I had my little patch,I had my my gear on. I was so
excited. But one of the thingsthat I noticed, besides noticing
that the trash just kind ofmagically seems to appear in the
sections where there's nothouses. So you just know, some
(14:45):
people just Huck and shit. WhatI found fascinating is 90% of
what I picked up was alcoholcans in bottles, beer cans and
bottles like alcohol, likeliquor, like people had gone to
the Packy and got. Themselvessome booze. I was like, why is
it that we and I was like, and Istarted laughing. I was like,
(15:06):
America, we have a drinkingproblem. Hello, hello. Anybody,
anybody out there? And I waslike, wow, it was just crazy.
They were like, nips. They werelike, quart size bottles. They
were, I was like, vodka. Like,remember the shape of Mad Dog?
2020, there were some of thosebottles. There was, I found all
kinds of stuff, but two trashbags full. And I was thinking to
(15:30):
myself, first of all, I was justso happy to be doing it. But
what was awesome? While I wasout there doing this, I bumped
into a few people. So I was nowcoming down Oak Hill. It's like,
this steep hill, and there wasan older woman, probably like,
in her late 70s, early 80s, outthere doing her walk. And I had
my ear buds in listening to someFleetwood Mac, you know, as I
(15:51):
was doing this stuff, and she'sI could tell that she was
talking to me, but I couldn'thear so I popped out my ear buds
and I said, Hi, and she's like,and she's like, she literally,
kind of like, hands on her hips.She's like, Can you believe how
people just lit up and throwstuff out of their cars? And I
(16:11):
said, I know. I said, it'sawful. And I said, but here's
the thing. I go we also live ina town where we have to take our
trash. So I explained it to her.We live in this town where we
have to take our trash, as youknow, like to the dump, and
sometimes it probably blows outof the back of of people's cars
and stuff. She's like, I know,but there's just so much of it.
(16:31):
And I said, I know. I said, Iagree. I go. And I gotta tell
you, I've seen it a bunch oftimes. And I finally was just
like, someone has to dosomething. And I said, and today
that someone is me. And she saidto me, Well, you she's so cute.
First of all, in her little walkin shorts, she had white hair,
she was adorable. And she'slike, well, I said, What's your
(16:52):
name? And she said, Jesse. And Isaid, Hi, Jesse. I'm Karen. And
and she said, Well, you'veinspired me, Karen. And I was
like, yay. Like, I was soexcited. And she said, I live
down there. She told me herhouse number. She's like, I'm in
the Concord line. So the OakHill basically turns from loud
and into Concord. I live, like,a mile from the Concord line,
(17:13):
right? So I I'm like, and shetells me your house number. So
I'm like, Wow. She takes wickedlong walks. She was far from her
house, and she said, she said,the most beautiful thing, and
this is what I want to I wantedto tell you. She says, Every day
I have to find a kindness. She'slike, every day I have to do a
kindness. She goes in today,this is going to be my kindness.
(17:36):
And she said it again, you'veinspired me. And I was just
like, tickled pink. I was justso excited, first of all, to
just know that another personwas going to be out there
cleaning up her neighborhoodtoo, her end of the street,
right? And that's the thing.It's like we got to clean up our
own ends of the street. And I'veoften said this to my clients.
(17:58):
You know, it's so easy to bitchabout people out there, you
know, so often. And this isliterally the analogy that I'll
use. I'll say, you know, it's sointeresting. We'll stand in our
front yard, and we'll look outin like, meaning, look out onto
the street, or at our neighbors,or the rest of the world, right?
And we'll say, you know, there'sjust shit everywhere. They're
(18:20):
just letting their shit goeverywhere, meaning, you know,
their their opinions, theirbehaviors, their bullshit, the
stuff that they do that youdon't like. And would just be
like, they're just letting theirshit go everywhere. Look at it.
It's a mess. And I'm like, andthe one thing that they're not
even looking at is, if theyturned around and looked in
their own backyard, they'd seethat their garbage cans, the
lids were off, and it was theirshit that was blowing into the
(18:43):
street. We're so focused on whatother people are doing or doing
wrong or not doing to ourstandard or not meeting our
preferences or whatever, it's soeasy to focus on other people
that we have our own blindspots, and we don't even
recognize that the trash iscoming from us. The trash is
coming from our own, yet thegarbage is coming from us. And
(19:07):
I'm pointing at my head thegarbage. It's like the calls are
coming from inside the house,right? And so, and I was like,
rather than focusing on whateverybody else isn't getting
right, what everybody else isdoing wrong. We can be the
change. We can do somethingdifferently. Again, whoever is
aware and awake and payingattention and is able right, you
(19:31):
have the means, you have theenergy, you have the ability.
Whatever it is, if you can doit, why not have you do
something about it? And it gotme to think about how you know
so often, and especially rightnow, and I say especially right
now, knowing that there havebeen other times in history when
(19:52):
it has been a colossal shitshow, we can, like, pick up a
book. I'm not being fresh, butliterally, pick up a book and
read. About our history, and youwill see there have been times
when there have been famines anddroughts and, like, the Spanish
flu and the depression, and justlike, you know, slave or like,
(20:14):
just look at, look at slavery.And just, you know, stealing the
land from indigenous people youjust look at throughout history,
there's always times when we cansay now more than ever, right?
It feels that way, like rightnow. It feels like we want to
say now more than ever. Butthere have always been moments
throughout history andthroughout time when it has been
(20:36):
just Civil War, right?Overwhelmingly awful. But
individuals, right? This is whenyou think about the collective,
when you think about, again, afamily, a neighborhood, a city,
a culture, a government,whatever, all that it's made up
of is individuals. And there's athere's always enough trash, I
(20:58):
always say shit that goes on inthe world, whether it's starving
children or sex trafficking orracist Christian nationalism
ideology or people like, youknow, like being awful towards
trans people, LGBTQIA, whatever,the reason why these Things go
(21:20):
why we have an alligatorAlcatraz is because enough
individuals are okay with it.
That's how we end up, quote,unquote here with things being a
shit show, is because enoughpeople are okay with it, or
believe in it or want it thatway. So when we see things that
(21:44):
we don't like, there are goingto be times when you can't do
anything about it. What can youdo when you see things that you
don't like, right? Like, you canspeak up, you can vote, you can
make phone calls. You canintervene when it's like smart
to do so, etc, etc, so we haveto do that, but a lot of times,
(22:04):
what happens is it's really easyto focus on what we don't like.
It's really easy to focus on thequote, unquote bad people, or
the other ones, or the otherside or whatever, and it's so
easy to get caught up in whateverybody else is doing that you
(22:26):
forget that you have someindividual power, that you too
have autonomy and agency andauthorship and the ability to
there's another a word I wantedto say, autonomy, agency,
authorship and authority, right,where you can get some shit done
too. And I often say to people,you know, if, if, if there's
(22:50):
nobody else around who's gonnafix it or whatever or change it,
what can you do? You know? AndI've had people you know say
like, oh, somebody, you know, Iwish somebody else would run for
office. I've had people say tome, like, why don't you run for
office? And I say, oh, no, no.I'm like, I'm not a politician.
I use my big mouth in otherways. But hey, why not you
(23:14):
running for office? If that'ssomething that, like you're
capable of and into and want tomake change, right? There's a
lot of ways to make change inthe world. But here's what I
wanted to say, while we'refocusing on the negative or the
bad or, quote, unquote, thosepeople, we lose sight of our own
power. We lose sight of the waysthat we can make a difference
(23:37):
and we can make a change. And Iwas thinking about something
that Swami Kripalu taught me. Imean, he taught, he taught
anybody who was learning fromhim. But Bapu Ji, as we call
him, the word Kripalu meanscompassion. Swami Kripalu, if
you've ever heard of theKripalu, you know, Center for
yoga and health out in theBerkshires, out in Western Mass.
(23:57):
I'm a Kripalu Yoga teacher. AndSwami Kripalu taught us that the
best way to improve yourself orthe best way to remove something
that you don't like or thatyou've been fighting with or
grappling with personally,right? So we're going to look at
this first personally. SwamiKripalu taught that the best way
to improve ourselves or toremove something that we don't
(24:21):
like or that we've beengrappling with or fighting with,
is not to dwell on the fault. Isto not to dwell on the bad
thing, right? That's like lostenergy. That's like spend
energy, don't put your focus onthe thing that you actually are
trying to grapple with or fightor change. What you want to
focus on and what you want tostrengthen is the opposite
positive character trait andvirtue. You put your focus on
(24:47):
the way that you want to be. Youput your focus on the way that
you want things to be. You don'tkeep staring at and focusing on
and putting your energy on thebad thing, the negative thing,
the thing you. Like you put yourawareness, your attention, your
strength and your focus. If youwant to strengthen that's what
you want to do. You want tostrengthen the opposite,
(25:09):
positive character trait orvirtue. That's where you put
your energy. And this works, inmy opinion, both on the
individual level and on thelevel of the world, the greater,
right, the greater expansion ofthose individuals. So for me,
it's like, if I if I'm like, Ohmy God, there's so much fear in
(25:30):
the world and there's so muchhatred and there's so much this,
and there's so much division andthere's so much separation. I'm
like, Okay, I'm going to put myfocus on creating moments in my
individual life, and maybe inthe groups that I run, in the
nest or in my yoga classes, orin when I do a workshop or when
I speak or whatever, then whatI'm going to do is really focus
(25:50):
on the opposite of the that. I'mgoing to focus instead of on
fear. I'm going to focus on loveinstead of focusing on anxiety
and worry and oh my god, I'mgoing to focus on love and
community and connection andcompassion and kindness and
mercy and grace and forgiveness.I'm going to focus on the
opposite, the positive virtueand character traits. That's how
(26:15):
we change shit is not lamentingand feeling helpless and
hopeless and going, oh my god,no. You see the fucking can in
the street. You pick it up. Yousee a hungry kid make him a
sandwich. See somebodystruggling, offer them a helping
hand, again, if you are aware,awake, paying attention and able
to that's the gig. The gig is tospread more love. The gig is to
(26:40):
get better at giving andreceiving more love, right? And
that can take 1000 forms, butthat's where we want to put our
positive attention and energy.That's what we want to
strengthen. And Swami karpaluhad a quote that was just so
simple and so perfect. And I dida whole podcast on this before,
but in case you didn't hear it,he says, don't fight the
(27:02):
darkness, turn on the light andbreathe into the goodness that
you are. Don't fight thedarkness, turn on the light,
breathe into the goodness thatyou are. And so that's what I've
been thinking about this pastweek, in the past few days, and
(27:23):
I got to tell you, it feltreally good like I'm holding up
my little patch again. It feltreally good to be a part of the
Thompson Tigers clean teamtoday. It felt really good to
know that when I go out thereand do my run a little bit, that
I'm not going to see those blueBud Light beer, you know, cans
and the Arizona iced tea cansand the bottles and the trash
bags and all the shit. I mean,you guys, I picked up today two
(27:46):
full size trash bags full ofstuff, and this was just on,
like, a mile and a mile or so ofroadside. So can you imagine,
can you imagine if one or twopeople in their neighborhood, in
your community, went out one daywhen they had some extra time,
and you took their trash bagsand picked up like, what a
(28:08):
difference it would make in yourneighborhood, in your community.
And I'm not saying that's whatyou have to do. You might have
another idea. You might be like,I want to build a community
garden, or I want to volunteerat the shelter, or I want to do
something, because this is whatwe want to focus on. Whenever
you hear yourself muttering,someone ought to do something.
What if that someone is youlike? How cool is that? So
(28:33):
here's what I'm going to leaveyou with. Ask yourself this
question, what's somethingthat's been bugging me? Right?
So what's something that's beenbugging you, what's something
that you've noticed, what'ssomething that kind of irks you
or rubs you the wrong way, oryou think to yourself, Man,
somebody ought to really dosomething about that. And then,
(28:56):
once you know what that thingis, ask yourself, What can I do?
What can I do? Because if you'reawake and you're aware and you
noticed it, because you werepaying attention, right, and
you're able to whether you havethe means, the resources, the
time, the energy, the health,whatever it is that you can do
something, why not do it? Whatif that someone today is you,
(29:21):
and you don't know, you might,you might inspire somebody. You
might inspire somebody. You knowanother guy saw me, an older
gentleman. He saw me like withmy two trash bags, like walking
up the street. One was alreadyfull, so it was like I was Santa
Clausing it while I had theother one. And I had to keep
walking down into these ditches.So I also had a walking pole,
(29:43):
like I found a big stick, and Iwas using it for leverage,
because I had to keep climbingin and out of these ditches. And
I was all sweaty and shit. Andhe saw me, and he pulled over,
and he's like, hey, it's trashday, you know? Because today's
one of the days we go the dump.And I was like, Yeah, I know.
And he's like, You got trash?And I was like. Well, it's not
my I said, I'm just picking upstuff on the side of the road.
(30:03):
And he's like, so he pulled overspecifically to help me if I
needed it. And when I told him Iwas all set, I said, My sweetie
is going to come get me and pickme up, he spun his car around,
and when it was truck, and whenhe pulled up next to me, old,
old, older gentleman, and hepulled up next to me, and he
said, I just want to say thankyou so much for cleaning up our
neighborhood, and it was sosweet. It was so nice. And it
(30:23):
gave me, of course, it just madethe little kid in me, like, so
happy, like I had my littlepatch, and I was like, Yeah,
I'm such a joke. I know. Allright, you guys, that's what I
got for you today, right? Thisis one of those things, like,
when I say at the end of theshow all the time, like wherever
you go, leave yourself and thepeople in the place and the
(30:43):
animals in the environmentbetter than how you find it
wherever you go, like May you bea blessing. This is it. This is
the work. It's like Jesse sayingevery day, right? Every day I
try to do a kindness. Every dayI try to find a kindness and do
a kindness. And that is good,that right? There is, I think,
something we could all do everyday. I think she just said, do a
kindness. But I think my brainis saying, also find a kindness.
(31:06):
But I think every day it wouldbehoove us right to look for the
good, the beautiful and theholy. Look find a kindness and
do a kindness. That's the motto.That's what I'm leaving you with
today, right? So remember,remember, if there's something
out there that's rubbing you thewrong way, if there's something
out there and it, like I said,it could be as big as you
deciding to run for office toI'm going to start a little, you
(31:30):
know, a little thing where webring new neighbors cookies. I
don't know what it could be,anything in between, but just
keep in mind that someone mightbe you. Someone is you? All
right, you guys, have afantastic rest of your week.
Whenever you're listening tothis, I appreciate you spending
some time with me. I really do.If you found this episode
(31:53):
beneficial or helpful in someway, please share it with
somebody you love. Please shareit with somebody you care about.
Maybe it will inspire them tojust help me to spread the love
I always appreciate that somuch. And as of course, I'd be
remiss to not let you know ifyou want to join a spiritual
(32:13):
community right now, people whoare like working on themselves,
trying to spread more love inthe world as well. That's what
the nest is all about. Myspiritual mentoring group and
community 50 bucks a month. Youcan just sign up at Karen Kenney
slash the nest, or just KarenKenney nest, N, E, S, T, Karen
kenney.com/nest and then I workwith people one to one as well,
(32:34):
Karen kenney.com/quest and youcan just go to my website to see
all the shenanigans things Ihave going on. And then also, if
you ever want to support theshow, I have a little tip jar,
and it's just Karenkenney.com/tip job. And I
appreciate anything. There's noobligation. But if you love to
support the show, and my effortsof getting this show out into
(32:55):
the world every week, episode335, I can't even believe it.
Over six years, we've been doingthis and taking this ride
together. So thank you. Allright, wherever you go, leave
your people and the place andthe animals and the environment
and yourself better than how youfound it. Wherever you go, may
you and your energy and yourpresence and your love and your
I don't know your your Thompsontigers, clean team spirit. Oh,
(33:21):
my God be a blessing. Bye, bye.
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