November 4, 2024 • 13 mins
What if the very risks you're avoiding are the keys to your personal growth and fulfillment? Join me, Dr. Julie Merriman, as I recount a life-altering risk I took in college that not only reshaped my path but also led me to my husband. Society often whispers caution and safety, but I’m here to champion the idea that risk is an integral part of holistic self-care. Together, we'll uncover how embracing the unknown can nurture self-belief and deliver lessons from both successes and failures. Plus, discover how my charming yoga goats in Meridian, Texas, have become a unique part of my wellness journey—and yours too, if you decide to join me for meditation and mimosas.
We also venture into the realm of overcoming resistance, identifying fears that keep us stagnant, and harnessing our inner superpowers to leap over life's hurdles. Here, you'll find encouragement to recognize your worth and see obstacles as opportunities for growth. By the end of our conversation, you’ll be inspired to take bold steps toward your dreams, armed with the knowledge that the potential rewards of risk are well worth the pursuit. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review, and let this episode be a testament to your capacity for courageous change.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey y'all, I'm Dr Julie Merriman and welcome to
SoulJoy.
In today's episode, we're goingto chat about the courage to
take risks.
Y'all this is a necessarycomponent of holistic,
sustainable self-care.
I like to call wellness us Okayy'all.
(00:35):
So thank you so much for beinghere.
I appreciate your time.
It means a lot to me.
You dropped by.
So in today's episode, we'regoing to talk about the courage
to take risks.
The courage to take risks, it'simportant.
It really is important, and I'mgoing to give you some examples
how it changed my life.
But before I go there, I wantto talk to y'all just a hot
(00:56):
minute, about my yoga goats.
I love my yoga goats.
I've got Zen and Karma andDharma and the boy is named Apu
and they are so cute.
They've really gotten friendlyand I think they're all pregnant
.
So I'm excited for when thebabies come because they're
going to help me do my goat yoga.
So if you're ever in theMeridian Texas area on a Sunday,
(01:19):
look me up.
We'll do some goat yoga.
We do meditation, goat yoga andmimosas Not all in that order.
So that's a lot of fun.
But back to the podcast.
So, professional helpers, I'vecreated this podcast for you and
it's dedicated to preventingand overcoming the occupational
(01:42):
hazards of our career, andovercoming the occupational
hazards of our careerSpecifically, I look at burnout,
compassion, fatigue andvicarious trauma.
So if you need to know moreabout that, check out my book In
Pursuit of Soul Joy.
It's available on my websiteand on Amazon.
But today and on Amazon.
(02:05):
But today we're talking abouthow do you feel about taking
risks.
A lot of times I think we havebeen programmed to kind of step
back from taking a risk.
I think we get shamed and Idon't think we celebrate and
embrace risk-taking like wereally should as a society.
(02:27):
Let me tell you about this.
One risk I took and I'm tellingyou it scared the hell out of
me.
But y'all this was when.
But y'all this was when it'snot when I met my husband, but
it's really when ourrelationship changed.
So we met back in college indomestic violence class.
(02:51):
Now my undergrad had a socialwork minor and his undergrad is
in criminal justice, so weweren't in trouble.
This was a college class we hadto take, but we met in domestic
violence and we flirted and wetalked to each other all through
(03:11):
the semester.
That was fall semester and thenChristmas break hit and y'all
this was back before the days ofcell phones.
You know this was back beforethe days of cell phones.
You know this was back in theearly 90s and you didn't just
type someone into your phone.
In fact, really, we had donenothing to get each other's
(03:31):
information so that we couldfind each other again.
But anyway, christmas break hitand I tell you that's all I
thought about over break.
I could not wait to get back toschool and see him again.
Well, sure enough, january hitsand I'm walking into the
humanities building at TarletonState University and I saw him
(03:53):
sitting over here.
I'm pointing over to my rightand I, of course, I'm such a
nerd.
I had this giant book bag andall my books were stuffed in
there, and my first class thatday was Spanish.
So I I walked to my Spanishclassroom and I set my book bag
down and I remember pacing backand forth.
I just I wanted so bad to go outthere and talk to him, but I
(04:18):
was terrified of the risk I wasgoing to take, especially as
I've told y'all, I'm a goodchild from the 60s, and girls
did not, were not the ones toconfront boys first, which
confronted in the right word,but girls weren't the ones to
make the first move.
So I was, you know, goingthrough my head pacing around
(04:39):
thinking, oh my God, I'm goingto go talk to him, but oh, I
can't because first I don't knowhow he's going to respond to me
.
Oh, I can never take such arisk as to go out there and
engage him.
Well, I took a deep breath andI told myself that I would never
forgive myself if I did not gosay something to him, because,
(04:59):
again, that's all I thoughtabout all through Christmas
break.
And sure enough, I went outthere and engaged him.
I'll never forget.
He looked at me and anyone whoknows my husband he's got quite
a dry sense of humor and thiswas his effort at humor I
learned.
But he looked at me and said,oh, it's you.
(05:22):
And I remember I just shrunkinside.
I was so like, oh my God, Ishould not have come up to talk
to him.
But that was just his firstapproach at humor and he's not
been one that has dated around alot.
So he really he didn't know howto approach me back.
But long story short, he wasthrilled that I'd come up to him
(05:46):
and spoken to him, because hetoo had done nothing.
But think about me over springbreak and the rest of the
story's history.
We haven't been apart since andthat was, I don't know, 92.
It was years and years ago.
But I took that risk and itchanged both of our lives for
(06:08):
the better.
And I'm telling you, it was ascary risk to take.
But I would just invite you toconsider what are you putting
off for fear of failing or beingrejected or whatever might be?
On the other side of it, asuccessful life has many risks
(06:28):
taken.
I will never regret havingtaken that risk of going and
engaging my husband, but I'mtelling you, all our risk won't
work out, but all the effortthat we put in will have a
valuable lesson on the otherside.
For you See, y'all, you've gotto believe in yourself.
(06:53):
You've got to believe that thatrisk, be it a failure or be it a
success, is worth it.
And that's chakra work.
And I'm still working on theroot chakra this week again.
I think this is the third weekin a row.
But if you don't have a good,balanced root chakra, you're not
going to allow yourself to takerisks.
(07:14):
You have to know what you want.
You have to know the life youdeserve and the life you want to
create.
To not know this leads to thatstuck energy, and stuck energy
is misery.
A good, clear, balanced rootchakra is going to allow you to
(07:38):
dream and manifest and takerisks.
You have to be willing, y'all.
You've got to get out of thatcomfort zone.
Had I stayed in that comfortzone that January day
30-something years ago, it mightbe a very different life I'm
living, and I'm living a greatlife.
(08:00):
I'm in love with a man thatgives me butterflies every time.
I'm living and I'm living agreat life.
I'm in love with a man thatgives me butterflies every time
I see him.
It was worth the risk.
You've got to get out of thatcomfort zone.
Nothing good ever came fromliving 100% of your life in a
comfort zone.
You get well, you just youstart.
(08:21):
You get stagnant, you startgoing the opposite way of
thriving.
You've got to allow yourself toquit living small.
Embrace that trying and failingis absolutely fine.
To have not tried, that'swhat's never okay.
Fine, to have not tried, that'swhat's never okay.
(08:42):
So I want you to dust off yourroot chakra, balance that energy
and give yourself permission tonot know the outcome, but be
willing to dream and try Again.
Y'all.
I had absolutely no idea how myhusband was going to react to
(09:03):
me when I went up to him thatday after Christmas break.
What a tragedy it would havebeen had I never taken that risk
and found out.
And, as a side note and I'vesaid this again he told me he
was hell bent on finding me thatday.
(09:23):
So that was really lovely tohear.
But I took the risk and at thattime I had no idea how he felt.
What risk do you need to taketoday?
What are you holding yourselfback from that might lead to a
completely different life tolive?
(09:45):
It all boils down to decidingto allow yourself to go bigger.
Grab that dream and take a riskto make it happen.
And again, y'all this isself-care.
This is one of the baselinethings you need'all this is
self-care.
This is one of the baselinethings you need to be doing for
your self-care.
You need to be doing thingsthat add joy to your life, not
(10:08):
having to sit back and havecreated a life that you want to
escape from.
Risk-taking helps you createthat life that is joyful.
So before I go on to theactivity, I just want to invite
you to subscribe to my emaillist to get my weekly emails
that I send out with thispodcast and the bonus PDFs, all
(10:31):
you've got to do is go to mywebsite and sign up for my
newsletter.
Also.
Grab my book while you're there.
Also grab my book while you'rethere.
My website isjuliemerrimanphdcom.
Okay, the activity today I callgoing bigger, and it is so easy
(10:51):
, but it is so powerful.
It's a rare client that Ihaven't had.
Do this for.
Whatever we might be working on, this is a really powerful
exercise.
All you have to do.
It just requires a timer, a penand a piece of paper.
All you've got to do now.
(11:13):
I would invite you to maybe doa little meditation before you
do this, or maybe go outside andget grounded.
Just do something so that youhave access to your full mind.
But all you've got to do is seta timer for five minutes and I
want you to dump your brain'scontents, all those words
(11:34):
between your ears.
Dump that onto a piece of paperNow.
I would have you set up thisbrain.
Dump that first.
You're thinking about who doyou dream to be?
How can you go bigger?
What risk do you need to take?
What might be holding you back?
(11:55):
So you set that timer and youjust start writing.
You don't worry aboutpunctuation, you don't worry
about if the words make sensetogether, you just write, do not
hold back, write, write, writeand at the end of that five
minutes, when that timer goesoff, you take a big, deep breath
, you get yourself grounded andyou read that dump.
(12:19):
You see what all that voicebetween your ears had going on.
And I want you to pick a fewtopics to take through a
superpower model Topics.
And again the topic is how canI go bigger?
What risks do I need to take?
Risks do I need to take?
(12:41):
Taking those thoughts throughyour superpower model is going
to really help you see whereresistance might be getting in
your way or fear.
It's going to help you seewhat's holding you back and
that's going to help you be ableto shift those thoughts and
create an opportunity to takerisks.
All right, all right.
(13:06):
So we've talked about theimportance of risk-taking and
how, on the other side of takingrisk can be the life that you
really, really, really want tolive.
So that's it for it, for ustoday, and I invite you to, I
invite you to know that you areworth taking risk and you are
(13:34):
worth whatever might be standing.
You're worth overcomingwhatever might be standing
between you and that dream.
So please subscribe to thispodcast wherever you listen,
please leave me a review and,until next time, take care of
(13:54):
you.
Hey y'all, I'm Dr Julie Merriman and welcome to
SoulJoy.
In today's episode, we're goingto chat about the courage to
take risks.
Y'all this is a necessarycomponent of holistic,
sustainable self-care.
I like to call wellness us Okayy'all.
(00:35):
So thank you so much for beinghere.
I appreciate your time.
It means a lot to me.
You dropped by.
So in today's episode, we'regoing to talk about the courage
to take risks.
The courage to take risks, it'simportant.
It really is important, and I'mgoing to give you some examples
how it changed my life.
But before I go there, I wantto talk to y'all just a hot
(00:56):
minute, about my yoga goats.
I love my yoga goats.
I've got Zen and Karma andDharma and the boy is named Apu
and they are so cute.
They've really gotten friendlyand I think they're all pregnant
.
So I'm excited for when thebabies come because they're
going to help me do my goat yoga.
So if you're ever in theMeridian Texas area on a Sunday,
(01:19):
look me up.
We'll do some goat yoga.
We do meditation, goat yoga andmimosas Not all in that order.
So that's a lot of fun.
But back to the podcast.
So, professional helpers, I'vecreated this podcast for you and
it's dedicated to preventingand overcoming the occupational
(01:42):
hazards of our career, andovercoming the occupational
hazards of our careerSpecifically, I look at burnout,
compassion, fatigue andvicarious trauma.
So if you need to know moreabout that, check out my book In
Pursuit of Soul Joy.
It's available on my websiteand on Amazon.
But today and on Amazon.
(02:05):
But today we're talking abouthow do you feel about taking
risks.
A lot of times I think we havebeen programmed to kind of step
back from taking a risk.
I think we get shamed and Idon't think we celebrate and
embrace risk-taking like wereally should as a society.
(02:27):
Let me tell you about this.
One risk I took and I'm tellingyou it scared the hell out of
me.
But y'all this was when.
But y'all this was when it'snot when I met my husband, but
it's really when ourrelationship changed.
So we met back in college indomestic violence class.
(02:51):
Now my undergrad had a socialwork minor and his undergrad is
in criminal justice, so weweren't in trouble.
This was a college class we hadto take, but we met in domestic
violence and we flirted and wetalked to each other all through
(03:11):
the semester.
That was fall semester and thenChristmas break hit and y'all
this was back before the days ofcell phones.
You know this was back beforethe days of cell phones.
You know this was back in theearly 90s and you didn't just
type someone into your phone.
In fact, really, we had donenothing to get each other's
(03:31):
information so that we couldfind each other again.
But anyway, christmas break hitand I tell you that's all I
thought about over break.
I could not wait to get back toschool and see him again.
Well, sure enough, january hitsand I'm walking into the
humanities building at TarletonState University and I saw him
(03:53):
sitting over here.
I'm pointing over to my rightand I, of course, I'm such a
nerd.
I had this giant book bag andall my books were stuffed in
there, and my first class thatday was Spanish.
So I I walked to my Spanishclassroom and I set my book bag
down and I remember pacing backand forth.
I just I wanted so bad to go outthere and talk to him, but I
(04:18):
was terrified of the risk I wasgoing to take, especially as
I've told y'all, I'm a goodchild from the 60s, and girls
did not, were not the ones toconfront boys first, which
confronted in the right word,but girls weren't the ones to
make the first move.
So I was, you know, goingthrough my head pacing around
(04:39):
thinking, oh my God, I'm goingto go talk to him, but oh, I
can't because first I don't knowhow he's going to respond to me
.
Oh, I can never take such arisk as to go out there and
engage him.
Well, I took a deep breath andI told myself that I would never
forgive myself if I did not gosay something to him, because,
(04:59):
again, that's all I thoughtabout all through Christmas
break.
And sure enough, I went outthere and engaged him.
I'll never forget.
He looked at me and anyone whoknows my husband he's got quite
a dry sense of humor and thiswas his effort at humor I
learned.
But he looked at me and said,oh, it's you.
(05:22):
And I remember I just shrunkinside.
I was so like, oh my God, Ishould not have come up to talk
to him.
But that was just his firstapproach at humor and he's not
been one that has dated around alot.
So he really he didn't know howto approach me back.
But long story short, he wasthrilled that I'd come up to him
(05:46):
and spoken to him, because hetoo had done nothing.
But think about me over springbreak and the rest of the
story's history.
We haven't been apart since andthat was, I don't know, 92.
It was years and years ago.
But I took that risk and itchanged both of our lives for
(06:08):
the better.
And I'm telling you, it was ascary risk to take.
But I would just invite you toconsider what are you putting
off for fear of failing or beingrejected or whatever might be?
On the other side of it, asuccessful life has many risks
(06:28):
taken.
I will never regret havingtaken that risk of going and
engaging my husband, but I'mtelling you, all our risk won't
work out, but all the effortthat we put in will have a
valuable lesson on the otherside.
For you See, y'all, you've gotto believe in yourself.
(06:53):
You've got to believe that thatrisk, be it a failure or be it a
success, is worth it.
And that's chakra work.
And I'm still working on theroot chakra this week again.
I think this is the third weekin a row.
But if you don't have a good,balanced root chakra, you're not
going to allow yourself to takerisks.
(07:14):
You have to know what you want.
You have to know the life youdeserve and the life you want to
create.
To not know this leads to thatstuck energy, and stuck energy
is misery.
A good, clear, balanced rootchakra is going to allow you to
(07:38):
dream and manifest and takerisks.
You have to be willing, y'all.
You've got to get out of thatcomfort zone.
Had I stayed in that comfortzone that January day
30-something years ago, it mightbe a very different life I'm
living, and I'm living a greatlife.
(08:00):
I'm in love with a man thatgives me butterflies every time.
I'm living and I'm living agreat life.
I'm in love with a man thatgives me butterflies every time
I see him.
It was worth the risk.
You've got to get out of thatcomfort zone.
Nothing good ever came fromliving 100% of your life in a
comfort zone.
You get well, you just youstart.
(08:21):
You get stagnant, you startgoing the opposite way of
thriving.
You've got to allow yourself toquit living small.
Embrace that trying and failingis absolutely fine.
To have not tried, that'swhat's never okay.
Fine, to have not tried, that'swhat's never okay.
(08:42):
So I want you to dust off yourroot chakra, balance that energy
and give yourself permission tonot know the outcome, but be
willing to dream and try Again.
Y'all.
I had absolutely no idea how myhusband was going to react to
(09:03):
me when I went up to him thatday after Christmas break.
What a tragedy it would havebeen had I never taken that risk
and found out.
And, as a side note and I'vesaid this again he told me he
was hell bent on finding me thatday.
(09:23):
So that was really lovely tohear.
But I took the risk and at thattime I had no idea how he felt.
What risk do you need to taketoday?
What are you holding yourselfback from that might lead to a
completely different life tolive?
(09:45):
It all boils down to decidingto allow yourself to go bigger.
Grab that dream and take a riskto make it happen.
And again, y'all this isself-care.
This is one of the baselinethings you need'all this is
self-care.
This is one of the baselinethings you need to be doing for
your self-care.
You need to be doing thingsthat add joy to your life, not
(10:08):
having to sit back and havecreated a life that you want to
escape from.
Risk-taking helps you createthat life that is joyful.
So before I go on to theactivity, I just want to invite
you to subscribe to my emaillist to get my weekly emails
that I send out with thispodcast and the bonus PDFs, all
(10:31):
you've got to do is go to mywebsite and sign up for my
newsletter.
Also.
Grab my book while you're there.
Also grab my book while you'rethere.
My website isjuliemerrimanphdcom.
Okay, the activity today I callgoing bigger, and it is so easy
(10:51):
, but it is so powerful.
It's a rare client that Ihaven't had.
Do this for.
Whatever we might be working on, this is a really powerful
exercise.
All you have to do.
It just requires a timer, a penand a piece of paper.
All you've got to do now.
(11:13):
I would invite you to maybe doa little meditation before you
do this, or maybe go outside andget grounded.
Just do something so that youhave access to your full mind.
But all you've got to do is seta timer for five minutes and I
want you to dump your brain'scontents, all those words
(11:34):
between your ears.
Dump that onto a piece of paperNow.
I would have you set up thisbrain.
Dump that first.
You're thinking about who doyou dream to be?
How can you go bigger?
What risk do you need to take?
What might be holding you back?
(11:55):
So you set that timer and youjust start writing.
You don't worry aboutpunctuation, you don't worry
about if the words make sensetogether, you just write, do not
hold back, write, write, writeand at the end of that five
minutes, when that timer goesoff, you take a big, deep breath
, you get yourself grounded andyou read that dump.
(12:19):
You see what all that voicebetween your ears had going on.
And I want you to pick a fewtopics to take through a
superpower model Topics.
And again the topic is how canI go bigger?
What risks do I need to take?
Risks do I need to take?
(12:41):
Taking those thoughts throughyour superpower model is going
to really help you see whereresistance might be getting in
your way or fear.
It's going to help you seewhat's holding you back and
that's going to help you be ableto shift those thoughts and
create an opportunity to takerisks.
All right, all right.
(13:06):
So we've talked about theimportance of risk-taking and
how, on the other side of takingrisk can be the life that you
really, really, really want tolive.
So that's it for it, for ustoday, and I invite you to, I
invite you to know that you areworth taking risk and you are
(13:34):
worth whatever might be standing.
You're worth overcomingwhatever might be standing
between you and that dream.
So please subscribe to thispodcast wherever you listen,
please leave me a review and,until next time, take care of
(13:54):
you.
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