July 4, 2025 • 20 mins
In this episode of Step Into The Pivot, Theresa and Dr. Ivi (Ivana) share deeply personal reflections on July 4th, and how the meaning of this holiday has shifted for each of them over time.
Theresa recalls the joy and innocence of childhood fireworks. For Dr. Ivi, the explosions once triggered traumatic memories from her war-torn childhood in Croatia. But instead of avoiding the pain, she chose a bold pivot: transforming the holiday into a ritual of personal liberation.
Through mindful sensory engagement and deep inner work, she rewired her nervous system and turned July 4th into her own Independence Day. This journey inspired her to create the Courage Cards, tools that help others uncover truth, heal gently, and honor their evolution with playfulness and depth. One card, “Toast Your Triumphs,” reminds us that real transformation is layered, courageous, and lifelong.
Tune in to explore how intentional rituals can help you reclaim parts of your life that still need healing. What might your personal independence day look like?
If you want more information about purchasing your own deck of Courage Cards—or are simply curious—reach out to grow@courageousbeing.com or visit our website at www.courageousbeing.com.
Connect with Theresa and Ivana:
Theresa, True Strategy Consultants: tsc-consultants.com
LinkedIn @treeconti, Insta @tscconsultants
Ivana, Courageous Being: courageousbeing.com
LinkedIn @ivipol, Insta @courbeing
SITP team, Step Into The Pivot: stepintothepivot.com
LinkedIn @step-into-the-pivot, YouTube @StepIntoThePivot
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome to Step Into the Pivot.
This is our 4th of July edition.
I'm super excited about it.
It's just Eva and I today, sowe really are excited about this
4th of July episode and we kindof love to do these event
episodes.
I don't know when we think about4th of July for me.
(00:21):
I grew up on the East Coast ofthe United States and
Pennsylvania and 4th of July forme.
I grew up on the East Coast ofthe United States and
Pennsylvania and 4th of July wasreally the summer kickoff.
You know, we didn't get out ofschool until mid-June.
It wasn't like in today's world.
I think Memorial Day is a lotof the summer kickoff.
For us it was always 4th ofJuly and 4th of July was a
really cool day.
(00:41):
We always had a picnic withfamily, we always spent that
time together and we alwaysended the night with fireworks.
Right?
Fireworks are such an importantpart of 4th of July.
I honestly can't even rememberthe last time I haven't seen
fireworks on the 4th of July.
So you know I love that story.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
How sweet it is to just picture you enjoying the
summer as a kid and enjoying thefireworks and it's just.
It just warms my heart when yousay that.
I love that, I really love that, and maybe one day we'll have a
chance to celebrate with somefireworks together.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
That would be awesome actually.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Maybe in Europe sometime.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That would be fun.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yes, yeah, so you mentioned Europe.
So our listeners have probablyheard that I'm from Europe.
My accent is from Croatia, Igrew up there and if you listen
to one of our original episodesfirst episodes, where we shared
a little bit about ourbackground, I said that I, you
know, play the pivot bingo, allkinds of different pivot
experiences, and so the one Iwanted to highlight for today
(01:44):
but we'll keep it, but we'llkeep it light and focused on the
holiday kind of aspect of it isthe fact that I lived in
Croatia.
I was there during the civilwar in the 90s.
After the war, and as animmigrant I'm, you know, I
(02:08):
decided to do that.
So I pruded myself from thathomeland and from the family and
from the language and theculture, and I've been looking
for many different ways to stayconnected.
So today I still, you know, Ifeel so blessed, I feel like I
have many homes and you know,it's like I very much feel like
a global citizen of the world.
But it was very much a definingpivot that I initiated.
So the decision to immigrateand was something that I chose
(02:31):
to do and it disruptedeverything I knew and then it
really forced me to build abrand new identity in this new
place.
So I, you know, unlike you, Ididn't grow up celebrating the
4th of July, but it was one ofthe first things that the
Americans my new American, youknow, family and this culture
(02:53):
that I was finding my waythrough showed me as, hey,
there's this cool thing that wedo.
So I joined in right off thebat.
So as soon as I started you youknow, spending time in the
United States, it was about the4th of July and so that was very
symbolic from the beginning.
But at first it wasn't reallycelebratory for me and it took
(03:15):
me a while to figure out whatwas going on.
Because this was now that Ithink about it, now that I know
what was going on, it's soobvious.
But at first, you know, knowthat it took me quite a few
years to realize why is this funand beautiful thing?
You know the fireworks and thecolors and everything.
Why is this so loud and jarringand triggering and what's going
(03:37):
on?
For me?
And it's because fireworkstriggered memories of war,
because they really do soundexactly the same as grenades.
It's the exact same noise.
So it took me a while to figureit out, but then I realized okay
, every time I hear it mynervous system gets really
(03:59):
activated.
And I promised I was going tokeep this light because, because
actually early there is, youknow this, I unpacked, I started
to unpack it here and it soundspretty serious, right, I invoke
trauma, nervous system jarring,I use some you know big words
like grenades, right, and Ithat's.
(04:22):
That's all true.
But I was noticing then, when Istarted to piece together what
was really happening, that youknow, listening to the fireworks
was actually more difficultthan seeing them.
So that was one of the firstclues that I had, that something
you know here could both belike, really related to
something deeper, but that also,maybe I could do some stuff to
(04:42):
heal it.
It was when I realized that itwas worse to just be sitting
inside and choosing to, let'ssay, try to watch a movie and
not participate in celebrationsbut hear the fireworks.
That was way more difficultthan exposing myself to the
whole shebang.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well, I could see that right, because if you were
out there with everybody andeverybody's going ooh and ah and
look at the pretty fireworks,right?
Because if you were out therewith everybody and everybody's
going ooh and ah and look at thepretty fireworks, right, it's
probably a different experience.
So I love that you put it inthat frame right.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, exactly, and I started to realize that, aha, if
I don't have actually enoughvisual cues, that I am here in a
different country, in a totallydifferent context and there is
a different situation, and I'mnot back in the nineties, you
country in a totally differentcontext and there is a different
situation, and I'm not back inthe 90s, you know, in the
war-ridden Croatia, if I don'thave enough cues, it's easy to
(05:33):
just kind of like start to go alittle hypnotized by the whole
situation and spiral down into astate of distress where
essentially, like, this youngeraspect of me starts to govern
the whole show and and one way Ilike to say it is that kind of
doesn't know what time it is anddoesn't know what date it is.
So I realized that maybe what Ican do here is is actually, I
(05:58):
guess, a cliche way to say itwould be to fully embrace it,
but really what that meant wasto just intentionally start to
celebrate the 4th of July andand redefine it and and the
first thing I wanted to reallyplay with was this notion of
independence, like wait, this is, this is a sweet metaphor that
I could really personalize andand and take completely, I guess
(06:22):
, out of the whole you knowAmerican context and make it
extremely, extremely individual.
While participating in the, inthe you know festivities, I
guess, and I started tointentionally think of ways to
really use this day as a day ofcelebration of my personal
(06:43):
freedom from fear.
So it's been really fun doingthat.
So for me, the magic of the 4thof July really meant that I'm
going to reclaim this sense ofgiddiness and happiness, because
when I tune in and I take awayall of the filters of all the
bad stuff that my mind wouldassociate with the noises, I
(07:04):
love the sparkliness of thefireworks, I love the fun of it.
I like to sometimes I just jokeabout it, but I like to
actually turns out, I like toactually do it, I like to light
those things up.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I've tried it and like as kids and I can't even
just say as kids even now, likewe always buy sparklers, right,
and you light those and you walkaround with them and they're
just fun, right they're, they're, they're something that's fun
to to look at.
So, right, I totally love thatyou're saying that.
I mean, I think that's what weall kind of think, but your
(07:39):
story is a little different.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, it was really fun.
You know, then I went throughthis phase of many years when
our one of our producers, liammy son was was much younger.
I was like, okay, we're goingto do this right, and we would
buy these, you know, acceptable,acceptable fireworks, and I got
(08:03):
to really get to get familiarwith all the funny names.
You know, the Green Lantern wasone of my favorites and then I
would just like let myself, letmyself enjoy it.
And there would be this youknow, I guess you could call it
like a mindfulness practice ofyou know, really slowing things
down for myself while I wasdoing these.
You know experiences of like,getting the thing and then
(08:25):
setting it up and then makingsure that everything is safe,
and then lighting it and thenwatching it and essentially like
rewiring, repatterning.
You know this experience andsaying to myself you know some
version of like, I'm safe.
I'm choosing to do this, I'mchoosing to infuse this with
(08:51):
celebration, with a sense ofopenness and freedom and I get
to have joy, I get to feel thelight and the sparkle.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I deserve that, yeah, you totally do.
And one of the things you saidI want to just repeat right, you
talked about how that youreclaimed that 4th of July as a
personal ritual of freedom foryourself.
Right, you let go in order toreally um to to, to move on, to
move, you know, and now that'slooking back at it, it's
(09:18):
something.
Now you celebrate right,something that you really used
in that manner.
I think we needed to repeatthat, right, because I think
it's an important piece of yourstory and who you are, and
sometimes we're using the virusas an example, but a lot of
people need sometimes to reclaimsomething for themselves, right
(09:43):
, to start over, to have thattrigger that.
Okay, this now has worked forme.
This is no longer something I'mafraid of, but something that I
view as something that pushedme forward.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, exactly, and in my work I do talk with a lot of
different people and, as youknow, I pay super close
attention to all kinds of mentalhealth conversations, and I am
fully aware and I just want topresence that here with us that
there, you know, there are allkinds of ways in which we could
examine the 4th of July from avariety of different
perspectives.
And also, you know the way I'mtalking about it.
(10:20):
This is, please know that thisis, you know, so personal and
it's me, you know, looking for away to, you know, really
transmute and transformsomething on the inside that was
really, you know, keeping me,keeping me caged in and and and
kind of hostage.
So I recently worked on thisbeautiful tool that we have we
(10:45):
call it a ritual technology tooland courageous being, courage
cards, and some of you may haveseen them.
We were releasing themdigitally, like one at a time
for a while, and then we createda physical deck, and so this is
something that I use on a dailybasis to essentially ground
center, get inspired.
(11:05):
So I might pull a card on adaily basis to remind myself of
some conscious leadershipprinciples, and one of the cards
that we made on purpose wasactually inspired by this whole
experience I'm talking about.
So it's I'm lifting it up herefor us to see if you're watching
us.
It's Toaster Triumphs and Iworked with my collaborator and
(11:27):
beautiful design artist, kristenAnderson, and I told her,
basically, this has got to befireworks, you know, just make
this really, really festive andfor everyone listening to this
episode.
Now you know the behind thescenes for, like, what really
inspired this.
So I might, if you don't mind,teresa, is it okay if I read the
message?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
associated with toasting your triumphs, and I
love that saying, and the art isbeautiful that toast your
triumphs.
Yeah, please read it.
Yeah, I'd love to hear it.
I have not heard it yet.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So this is my 4th of July.
Yeah, this is my 4th of Julymessage to all of us and you
know, starting with you, myfriend and myself, and everybody
else who could use a little,you know, pick me up, feel
better 4th of July or any day.
Toaster Triumphs, it says.
Reflect on this.
The limits you pushed, thefears you stared down, the
(12:19):
choices you made, moment bymoment, even when no one was
watching.
This is transformation, Not onegrand event, but the steady
layering of effort, courage andgrowth.
Over time, you turn challengesinto lessons, lessons into
strengths and strength intomomentum.
(12:39):
Take stock of your growth andcelebrate how you have evolved.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I love that.
I love that.
That was a great way to usethat card that says so much
about you, so much about usright and who we should be.
Yeah, I absolutely love that.
Now I know that that was one ofyour aha moments.
(13:05):
Was those courage cards?
Anything else you would talkabout when you talk about you
know, an aha revelation that youhad kind of as a result of that
firework pivot Anything elseyou would share with us there?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Go deeper, go deeper.
If something feels a little offyou know it's a personal
experience First the go deeperand get curious.
So I'm happy now that I wentdeeper and realized that if
something was really feeling offon that picnic blanket the
first time I was sitting andtrying to celebrate and it just
(13:44):
didn't quite feel right, I hadno clue how deep this would go.
And being curious about it anddropping in first by myself, you
know, and then asking forsupport about it, is really,
really helpful.
So absolutely.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And we all need support, right, whether it's
it's fireworks or whether it'ssomething else going on in our
lives right, it's all about thesupport I actually it's funny
you mentioned that because Ijust wrote a blog post about
that and about how you knowsomebody I was talking with and
you know they were like spillingthis story to me and really I
didn't do anything except sitthere and listen to them and
(14:20):
support them and let them talkand you know, when I said
something to her later she'slike you really helped me just
the fact that you listened,right.
So I love that we can connecthow how that all works together
in our universe.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
That is so beautiful, so beautiful.
Would you like a card?
Should we pull you a card for?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
because then we're going to get to our final
question.
You know that, so yeah, butlet's see what you get in
celebration.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I'm gonna ask it like this this is like a little
conscious leadership message foryou this fourth of july, okay,
so say stop when you want me tostop shuffling the cards, and
then we'll see what you get uhstop okay, and then say now,
when you want me to pull a cardNow, oh darling, this is so
(15:13):
lovely, it's exactly what youwere just talking about.
It said caring counts, you know,and oftentimes this card is
about how being loving, even inthe business setting, you know,
is not a weakness.
Love can be seen as soft.
Don't mistake the softness forweakness.
So this beautiful thing youwere describing about being
available, right, I mean, I justlove that as someone who did
(15:37):
have a history of, you know,dealing with some of these like
silent things that I couldn'treally talk about, especially in
the corporate setting, havingpeople like you be nearby and
just be available.
What a difference that thismade.
In truth, it says courage comesfrom core, the word for heart,
which you probably know, and ittakes real bravery to
(15:58):
communicate with heart and showthat caring deeply matters.
Sometimes I say this is my care.
Bear card Sharing is caring.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I love this message.
Okay, how was this pivot?
A step forward?
You have to do it.
I'm sorry, I have to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Bigger life, really more expanded, really more
expanded.
On the one hand, I havereclaimed joy.
There is something that happensfor me, like I say like that
4th of July just now connotescelebration and festivities
outside of any, you know, kindof like bigger context, so
personal, and it's so wonderful,so expanded into more joy and
(16:38):
also expanded into more capacityto feel all of my feelings,
even the ones that were reallychallenging, and then from there
, like we were just talkingabout, expanding into being able
to care more, so allowing foryou know, other people to like,
really come and ask for supportand really be someone who can,
(17:01):
this 4th of July, just show upwith curiosity and recognize
that people are going to haveall kinds of experiences and
that you know we can be therefor each other through it all,
no matter what.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I love that.
And I'm going to say one morething that you wrote kind of in
our show notes, our kind of prepnotes, right, because you know
we kind of do this.
But you said that July 4th forme is much more than a holiday.
It's a personal ritual ofreclamation, a day when I honor
how far I've come, and I had tosay that I'm sorry you wrote it
(17:38):
down.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Thank you, that is so beautiful and it was something
that really spoke to me.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
So I felt I had to say it because I love it, I love
that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Thank you for lifting me up like this.
This is like this.
Is you doing it?
You're caring in real time.
This is something that, yeah, Iabsolutely feel that way and
you know, here, being with youand being in this like organic
share.
I wouldn't have, you know,brought that up if you didn't
say it, so thank you for doingthat.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
No.
I think, it was something thatspoke to me when I saw that you,
you wrote that down, so I feltwe had to cover that.
So, to our listeners, we wishyou a happy 4th of July.
Enjoy the fireworks, you know.
Make them work for you,whatever that looks like.
Ivana, what would you like toadd here?
(18:23):
And thank you for sharing yourstory.
I need to say that as well.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yes, I would invite everybody to think about, like
what is something that would,for you, stand for this personal
ritual of reclamation?
Is there something in your lifethat feels like you could
animate more into live, moreinto reclaim, and then is there
something really simple that youcould do to make that happen?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, no, I love that and we're like kind of right at
the middle of the year, so it'sa good time to put that into
play for the rest of this year.
So I think that's an amazingway for us to end Again to our
listeners happy 4th of July.
Have a wonderful, safe holiday.
Thank you again for listening.
Thank you to Ivana for sharingher story.
(19:09):
I am so honored and love beinghere with her.
So it's an amazing time for allof us and thank you everybody,
and remember if you have a pivotstep into it.
Hello everyone and welcome to Step Into the Pivot.
This is our 4th of July edition.
I'm super excited about it.
It's just Eva and I today, sowe really are excited about this
4th of July episode and we kindof love to do these event
episodes.
I don't know when we think about4th of July for me.
(00:21):
I grew up on the East Coast ofthe United States and
Pennsylvania and 4th of July forme.
I grew up on the East Coast ofthe United States and
Pennsylvania and 4th of July wasreally the summer kickoff.
You know, we didn't get out ofschool until mid-June.
It wasn't like in today's world.
I think Memorial Day is a lotof the summer kickoff.
For us it was always 4th ofJuly and 4th of July was a
really cool day.
(00:41):
We always had a picnic withfamily, we always spent that
time together and we alwaysended the night with fireworks.
Right?
Fireworks are such an importantpart of 4th of July.
I honestly can't even rememberthe last time I haven't seen
fireworks on the 4th of July.
So you know I love that story.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
How sweet it is to just picture you enjoying the
summer as a kid and enjoying thefireworks and it's just.
It just warms my heart when yousay that.
I love that, I really love that, and maybe one day we'll have a
chance to celebrate with somefireworks together.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
That would be awesome actually.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Maybe in Europe sometime.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That would be fun.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yes, yeah, so you mentioned Europe.
So our listeners have probablyheard that I'm from Europe.
My accent is from Croatia, Igrew up there and if you listen
to one of our original episodesfirst episodes, where we shared
a little bit about ourbackground, I said that I, you
know, play the pivot bingo, allkinds of different pivot
experiences, and so the one Iwanted to highlight for today
(01:44):
but we'll keep it, but we'llkeep it light and focused on the
holiday kind of aspect of it isthe fact that I lived in
Croatia.
I was there during the civilwar in the 90s.
After the war, and as animmigrant I'm, you know, I
(02:08):
decided to do that.
So I pruded myself from thathomeland and from the family and
from the language and theculture, and I've been looking
for many different ways to stayconnected.
So today I still, you know, Ifeel so blessed, I feel like I
have many homes and you know,it's like I very much feel like
a global citizen of the world.
But it was very much a definingpivot that I initiated.
So the decision to immigrateand was something that I chose
(02:31):
to do and it disruptedeverything I knew and then it
really forced me to build abrand new identity in this new
place.
So I, you know, unlike you, Ididn't grow up celebrating the
4th of July, but it was one ofthe first things that the
Americans my new American, youknow, family and this culture
(02:53):
that I was finding my waythrough showed me as, hey,
there's this cool thing that wedo.
So I joined in right off thebat.
So as soon as I started you youknow, spending time in the
United States, it was about the4th of July and so that was very
symbolic from the beginning.
But at first it wasn't reallycelebratory for me and it took
(03:15):
me a while to figure out whatwas going on.
Because this was now that Ithink about it, now that I know
what was going on, it's soobvious.
But at first, you know, knowthat it took me quite a few
years to realize why is this funand beautiful thing?
You know the fireworks and thecolors and everything.
Why is this so loud and jarringand triggering and what's going
(03:37):
on?
For me?
And it's because fireworkstriggered memories of war,
because they really do soundexactly the same as grenades.
It's the exact same noise.
So it took me a while to figureit out, but then I realized okay
, every time I hear it mynervous system gets really
(03:59):
activated.
And I promised I was going tokeep this light because, because
actually early there is, youknow this, I unpacked, I started
to unpack it here and it soundspretty serious, right, I invoke
trauma, nervous system jarring,I use some you know big words
like grenades, right, and Ithat's.
(04:22):
That's all true.
But I was noticing then, when Istarted to piece together what
was really happening, that youknow, listening to the fireworks
was actually more difficultthan seeing them.
So that was one of the firstclues that I had, that something
you know here could both belike, really related to
something deeper, but that also,maybe I could do some stuff to
(04:42):
heal it.
It was when I realized that itwas worse to just be sitting
inside and choosing to, let'ssay, try to watch a movie and
not participate in celebrationsbut hear the fireworks.
That was way more difficultthan exposing myself to the
whole shebang.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well, I could see that right, because if you were
out there with everybody andeverybody's going ooh and ah and
look at the pretty fireworks,right?
Because if you were out therewith everybody and everybody's
going ooh and ah and look at thepretty fireworks, right, it's
probably a different experience.
So I love that you put it inthat frame right.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, exactly, and I started to realize that, aha, if
I don't have actually enoughvisual cues, that I am here in a
different country, in a totallydifferent context and there is
a different situation, and I'mnot back in the nineties, you
country in a totally differentcontext and there is a different
situation, and I'm not back inthe 90s, you know, in the
war-ridden Croatia, if I don'thave enough cues, it's easy to
(05:33):
just kind of like start to go alittle hypnotized by the whole
situation and spiral down into astate of distress where
essentially, like, this youngeraspect of me starts to govern
the whole show and and one way Ilike to say it is that kind of
doesn't know what time it is anddoesn't know what date it is.
So I realized that maybe what Ican do here is is actually, I
(05:58):
guess, a cliche way to say itwould be to fully embrace it,
but really what that meant wasto just intentionally start to
celebrate the 4th of July andand redefine it and and the
first thing I wanted to reallyplay with was this notion of
independence, like wait, this is, this is a sweet metaphor that
I could really personalize andand and take completely, I guess
(06:22):
, out of the whole you knowAmerican context and make it
extremely, extremely individual.
While participating in the, inthe you know festivities, I
guess, and I started tointentionally think of ways to
really use this day as a day ofcelebration of my personal
(06:43):
freedom from fear.
So it's been really fun doingthat.
So for me, the magic of the 4thof July really meant that I'm
going to reclaim this sense ofgiddiness and happiness, because
when I tune in and I take awayall of the filters of all the
bad stuff that my mind wouldassociate with the noises, I
(07:04):
love the sparkliness of thefireworks, I love the fun of it.
I like to sometimes I just jokeabout it, but I like to
actually turns out, I like toactually do it, I like to light
those things up.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I've tried it and like as kids and I can't even
just say as kids even now, likewe always buy sparklers, right,
and you light those and you walkaround with them and they're
just fun, right they're, they're, they're something that's fun
to to look at.
So, right, I totally love thatyou're saying that.
I mean, I think that's what weall kind of think, but your
(07:39):
story is a little different.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, it was really fun.
You know, then I went throughthis phase of many years when
our one of our producers, liammy son was was much younger.
I was like, okay, we're goingto do this right, and we would
buy these, you know, acceptable,acceptable fireworks, and I got
(08:03):
to really get to get familiarwith all the funny names.
You know, the Green Lantern wasone of my favorites and then I
would just like let myself, letmyself enjoy it.
And there would be this youknow, I guess you could call it
like a mindfulness practice ofyou know, really slowing things
down for myself while I wasdoing these.
You know experiences of like,getting the thing and then
(08:25):
setting it up and then makingsure that everything is safe,
and then lighting it and thenwatching it and essentially like
rewiring, repatterning.
You know this experience andsaying to myself you know some
version of like, I'm safe.
I'm choosing to do this, I'mchoosing to infuse this with
(08:51):
celebration, with a sense ofopenness and freedom and I get
to have joy, I get to feel thelight and the sparkle.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I deserve that, yeah, you totally do.
And one of the things you saidI want to just repeat right, you
talked about how that youreclaimed that 4th of July as a
personal ritual of freedom foryourself.
Right, you let go in order toreally um to to, to move on, to
move, you know, and now that'slooking back at it, it's
(09:18):
something.
Now you celebrate right,something that you really used
in that manner.
I think we needed to repeatthat, right, because I think
it's an important piece of yourstory and who you are, and
sometimes we're using the virusas an example, but a lot of
people need sometimes to reclaimsomething for themselves, right
(09:43):
, to start over, to have thattrigger that.
Okay, this now has worked forme.
This is no longer something I'mafraid of, but something that I
view as something that pushedme forward.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, exactly, and in my work I do talk with a lot of
different people and, as youknow, I pay super close
attention to all kinds of mentalhealth conversations, and I am
fully aware and I just want topresence that here with us that
there, you know, there are allkinds of ways in which we could
examine the 4th of July from avariety of different
perspectives.
And also, you know the way I'mtalking about it.
(10:20):
This is, please know that thisis, you know, so personal and
it's me, you know, looking for away to, you know, really
transmute and transformsomething on the inside that was
really, you know, keeping me,keeping me caged in and and and
kind of hostage.
So I recently worked on thisbeautiful tool that we have we
(10:45):
call it a ritual technology tooland courageous being, courage
cards, and some of you may haveseen them.
We were releasing themdigitally, like one at a time
for a while, and then we createda physical deck, and so this is
something that I use on a dailybasis to essentially ground
center, get inspired.
(11:05):
So I might pull a card on adaily basis to remind myself of
some conscious leadershipprinciples, and one of the cards
that we made on purpose wasactually inspired by this whole
experience I'm talking about.
So it's I'm lifting it up herefor us to see if you're watching
us.
It's Toaster Triumphs and Iworked with my collaborator and
(11:27):
beautiful design artist, kristenAnderson, and I told her,
basically, this has got to befireworks, you know, just make
this really, really festive andfor everyone listening to this
episode.
Now you know the behind thescenes for, like, what really
inspired this.
So I might, if you don't mind,teresa, is it okay if I read the
message?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
associated with toasting your triumphs, and I
love that saying, and the art isbeautiful that toast your
triumphs.
Yeah, please read it.
Yeah, I'd love to hear it.
I have not heard it yet.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So this is my 4th of July.
Yeah, this is my 4th of Julymessage to all of us and you
know, starting with you, myfriend and myself, and everybody
else who could use a little,you know, pick me up, feel
better 4th of July or any day.
Toaster Triumphs, it says.
Reflect on this.
The limits you pushed, thefears you stared down, the
(12:19):
choices you made, moment bymoment, even when no one was
watching.
This is transformation, Not onegrand event, but the steady
layering of effort, courage andgrowth.
Over time, you turn challengesinto lessons, lessons into
strengths and strength intomomentum.
(12:39):
Take stock of your growth andcelebrate how you have evolved.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
I love that.
I love that.
That was a great way to usethat card that says so much
about you, so much about usright and who we should be.
Yeah, I absolutely love that.
Now I know that that was one ofyour aha moments.
(13:05):
Was those courage cards?
Anything else you would talkabout when you talk about you
know, an aha revelation that youhad kind of as a result of that
firework pivot Anything elseyou would share with us there?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Go deeper, go deeper.
If something feels a little offyou know it's a personal
experience First the go deeperand get curious.
So I'm happy now that I wentdeeper and realized that if
something was really feeling offon that picnic blanket the
first time I was sitting andtrying to celebrate and it just
(13:44):
didn't quite feel right, I hadno clue how deep this would go.
And being curious about it anddropping in first by myself, you
know, and then asking forsupport about it, is really,
really helpful.
So absolutely.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
And we all need support, right, whether it's
it's fireworks or whether it'ssomething else going on in our
lives right, it's all about thesupport I actually it's funny
you mentioned that because Ijust wrote a blog post about
that and about how you knowsomebody I was talking with and
you know they were like spillingthis story to me and really I
didn't do anything except sitthere and listen to them and
(14:20):
support them and let them talkand you know, when I said
something to her later she'slike you really helped me just
the fact that you listened,right.
So I love that we can connecthow how that all works together
in our universe.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
That is so beautiful, so beautiful.
Would you like a card?
Should we pull you a card for?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
because then we're going to get to our final
question.
You know that, so yeah, butlet's see what you get in
celebration.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I'm gonna ask it like this this is like a little
conscious leadership message foryou this fourth of july, okay,
so say stop when you want me tostop shuffling the cards, and
then we'll see what you get uhstop okay, and then say now,
when you want me to pull a cardNow, oh darling, this is so
(15:13):
lovely, it's exactly what youwere just talking about.
It said caring counts, you know,and oftentimes this card is
about how being loving, even inthe business setting, you know,
is not a weakness.
Love can be seen as soft.
Don't mistake the softness forweakness.
So this beautiful thing youwere describing about being
available, right, I mean, I justlove that as someone who did
(15:37):
have a history of, you know,dealing with some of these like
silent things that I couldn'treally talk about, especially in
the corporate setting, havingpeople like you be nearby and
just be available.
What a difference that thismade.
In truth, it says courage comesfrom core, the word for heart,
which you probably know, and ittakes real bravery to
(15:58):
communicate with heart and showthat caring deeply matters.
Sometimes I say this is my care.
Bear card Sharing is caring.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I love this message.
Okay, how was this pivot?
A step forward?
You have to do it.
I'm sorry, I have to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Bigger life, really more expanded, really more
expanded.
On the one hand, I havereclaimed joy.
There is something that happensfor me, like I say like that
4th of July just now connotescelebration and festivities
outside of any, you know, kindof like bigger context, so
personal, and it's so wonderful,so expanded into more joy and
(16:38):
also expanded into more capacityto feel all of my feelings,
even the ones that were reallychallenging, and then from there
, like we were just talkingabout, expanding into being able
to care more, so allowing foryou know, other people to like,
really come and ask for supportand really be someone who can,
(17:01):
this 4th of July, just show upwith curiosity and recognize
that people are going to haveall kinds of experiences and
that you know we can be therefor each other through it all,
no matter what.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I love that.
And I'm going to say one morething that you wrote kind of in
our show notes, our kind of prepnotes, right, because you know
we kind of do this.
But you said that July 4th forme is much more than a holiday.
It's a personal ritual ofreclamation, a day when I honor
how far I've come, and I had tosay that I'm sorry you wrote it
(17:38):
down.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Thank you, that is so beautiful and it was something
that really spoke to me.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
So I felt I had to say it because I love it, I love
that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Thank you for lifting me up like this.
This is like this.
Is you doing it?
You're caring in real time.
This is something that, yeah, Iabsolutely feel that way and
you know, here, being with youand being in this like organic
share.
I wouldn't have, you know,brought that up if you didn't
say it, so thank you for doingthat.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
No.
I think, it was something thatspoke to me when I saw that you,
you wrote that down, so I feltwe had to cover that.
So, to our listeners, we wishyou a happy 4th of July.
Enjoy the fireworks, you know.
Make them work for you,whatever that looks like.
Ivana, what would you like toadd here?
(18:23):
And thank you for sharing yourstory.
I need to say that as well.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yes, I would invite everybody to think about, like
what is something that would,for you, stand for this personal
ritual of reclamation?
Is there something in your lifethat feels like you could
animate more into live, moreinto reclaim, and then is there
something really simple that youcould do to make that happen?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, no, I love that and we're like kind of right at
the middle of the year, so it'sa good time to put that into
play for the rest of this year.
So I think that's an amazingway for us to end Again to our
listeners happy 4th of July.
Have a wonderful, safe holiday.
Thank you again for listening.
Thank you to Ivana for sharingher story.
(19:09):
I am so honored and love beinghere with her.
So it's an amazing time for allof us and thank you everybody,
and remember if you have a pivotstep into it.
Popular Podcasts
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.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.