July 28, 2025 • 30 mins
We grew up being told to hustle, focus, and quit “messing around.” But what if joy isn’t a distraction—what if it’s direction? This week, we unpack our own resistance to delight. We explore the simple but powerful practice of letting yourself enjoy beauty, play, and presence (without guilt) and talk about how that can be a way back to your truest self. From dirty dishes glowing in sunlight to sidewalk blooms, we reflect on how slowing down helps us rediscover what truly lights us up.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you know someone who needs this kind of gentle nudge, send it their way. The more kind, creative hearts in this space, the better.
And if something in this episode resonates or makes you smile, come say hi on Instagram @theartpeaceexperiment 🤍
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Thank you.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Art PeaceExperiment.
We're your hosts, two artistsand friends.
I'm Tasha.
And I'm Brianna.
At the end of 2024, we decidedwe wanted to cultivate more
safety, peace, love, alignment,and excitement through our art
and our art practices.
(00:24):
So here we are sharing ourjourney with you.
And we're so excited you'rehere.
We hope you enjoy ourconversations.
They're honest, raw, just Justtwo friends talking to each
other about the realities oflife and creativity.
We're so excited for you to joinus and be along with us for the
journey.
(00:46):
A few months ago, you hadsomeone challenge you to lean
into what delights you.
And you came and talked to meabout it.
And I think we both kind of hadthe same reaction to this.
Yeah.
Of just...
I'm allowed to do that.
Excuse me?
(01:08):
What?
We can just delight in thingsand that's okay?
That's allowed and it can bequirky and weird and stuff that
is fun and we don't have tototally conform and we can take
time for that.
Yes.
(01:29):
taking time out to pause and notdo things and delight in simple
things too.
I think that's huge.
Yeah.
So it was a really big momentfor me when I heard this idea, I
(01:49):
guess, of just living in delightand having that be a way of
life, you know?
Right.
Um, and I think it was, it's, Ithink for me, it's kind of been
a process of coming to acceptmyself and, um, kind of figuring
(02:12):
out what I, what I like, who Iam, what delights me, you know,
like what I really connect with.
And over the last little fewyears, you know, a little while,
um, It's been a process.
It's been on my mind for a longtime.
And I've been trying to figurethat out, especially amidst
(02:35):
motherhood.
I think that really kind ofthrows you into that where you
get so much into taking care ofthis little human being and then
you're like, who am I?
And you lose yourself.
I think a lot of people losethemselves in motherhood and
parenthood.
But since my son's been inschool the last few years.
(03:01):
And I've had more time to reallyreflect and figure out what do I
want?
And now I have time, you know?
Yeah.
And so I've been on that journeya little bit, but it wasn't
until, yeah, just a few monthsago where I heard that that it
(03:22):
really– Made the switch, Ithink.
Yeah.
Gave yourself permission.
Yeah.
Like, this is a valid option.
It's not a bad thing.
Right.
Which I feel like growing up,we're told, you know, like,
hurry up.
work harder.
Yeah.
All of that kind of quit messingaround.
(03:45):
Yeah.
That kind of mentality.
And yeah.
And you don't get to stop andsmell the roses.
You don't get to, you don't getdistracted.
Keep going.
You know, I know if I'm doingthat to my son too, like, Nope,
we just got to go.
Let's go.
Like, you know, stay focused.
Right.
Right.
It's just so much a part of our,of our culture.
And, and like there are timesfor that.
(04:06):
Yes.
Right.
But, But not all the time.
Not all the time.
That shouldn't be every moment.
I think, yeah.
And I think so often we just getso in the go mode.
That's our, you know, hustleculture and just you have to
work really hard and do a lotand go, go, go, you know, and
(04:31):
taking breaks for– yourself tojust do nothing to just sit and
do nothing like we don't evensit and do nothing because we
sit and we scroll or we you knowmake a checklist or we do check
our emails you know we're alwaysdoing something right we're
never really unplugged in oursociety where we just sit and
(04:53):
and and think you know it has tobe like a conscious effort in
our society now and so takingthat time to reflect and think,
what do I delight in?
It takes, it takes a kind of aconscious effort.
(05:13):
Yeah, it does.
It can be really hard.
Well, it's interesting becausegrowing up, you know, we're kind
of, we're programmed to likeplease and appease our parents
and, you know.
Well, that's how we're wiredtoo, biologically.
That's how we're wired, yeah.
It's like, you know, as littlekids, we tend to like what, they
like and get excited about itand like there's nothing wrong
(05:34):
with that but then you know aswe come become teenagers it's
like you start separating fromyour parents a little bit more
but then like friends becomemore important and you're trying
to just kind of fit in and umthen you know as you get older
if you you know get married oryou know dating and having
relationships and it's stillthat kind of like fitting in
(05:56):
yeah it's a big part of ofgrowing up is just kind of like
finding where you fit.
And sometimes we lose a littlebit of ourselves.
Yeah.
I feel like a lot of times, uh,we live for others.
Yeah.
Rather than ourselves.
Yeah.
And we're not really, not reallytaught how to live for ourselves
(06:19):
and how to connect withourselves.
Yeah.
Um, because we, um, you know,we're like you said, from a
really young age, like we'retaught, do this, don't do that.
You know, we're, we're reallyguided by our parents, which is
their job and that's whatthey're supposed to do.
And it's totally fine.
No knock on parents.
(06:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, um, And then we, we, youknow, listen to our friends and
engage what the social group,and that's part of our survival
mechanism, right?
Where we have to, we have tostay connected to our drive in
order to survive.
And so that's, that's all wiredand it's a normal, natural
thing.
Right.
But the thing that we are sooften missing that I feel like
(07:02):
we kind of, we, people grow upand then I mean, that's why we
have like midlife crisis, youknow?
Yeah.
Who am I?
Exactly.
Then we kind of try to figureout who we are as an individual
rather than a person that fitsin this group, right?
As we go off, we don't have ourfriend group anymore.
(07:25):
We get married.
We go, you know, we go have ajob.
We like, you know, we justseparate.
And it's interesting too becausewhen you grow up and you do
move, And it's like a cultureshock.
Like even if you move somewhere,you know, in the States, you
know, like for us, we grew up inthe States and just like moving
to a new place is there is someculture shock and things that
(07:49):
are different.
Like I grew up in Seattle andpeople there wear fleece like
all the time.
Like it's just a normal
SPEAKER_02 (07:59):
thing.
SPEAKER_00 (08:00):
you know like fleece sweaters and jackets and stuff
and then moving to other placesit was like oh that's an
interesting style you have yeahand I never thought about it as
like wearing a fleece jacket isnot stylish it's not like my
style but yeah it's it's justwhat people wore there right and
realizing that that wasn'tacross the board like everywhere
(08:23):
that's uh yeah you know like achoice people make it's not like
a normal standard thing foreveryone yeah so the people are
like Oh, that's interesting.
It's an interesting choice.
It's just like, what?
What are you talking about?
Yeah.
And just like realizing theworld is like a bigger, I don't
know, a bigger, there's so muchmore possibility.
(08:46):
Yeah.
And it's just, it's interestingto see how, where we grew up and
the people that we spend ourtime with really shape us in a
lot of ways.
And then I think that's part ofwhat the midlife crisis is too
of like you kind of break fromthat and realize like wait do I
(09:06):
even like these things like whoeven am I how do I fit in my new
environment and be true tomyself be true to myself and I
feel like when we heard this youknow challenge of I mean it was
a soft challenge it wasn't likethis hard like go and delight
yourself it's just like here's anew way of thinking about things
but when we heard that it was umalmost just permission to come
(09:31):
back into alignment.
Yeah.
And to, and to just notice likewhat brings me, what brings me
joy and like just even the smallmoments, you know, noticing how
the sunlight, you know, hits theleaves and, and, you know, just
small things that are like,just, yeah, just bring joy.
(09:53):
Yeah.
And it's interesting because Ifeel like I've always, you know,
kind of leaned towards doingthat like I have always kind of
done that you know like saw thelittle flowers in the cracks of
the sidewalk and it was like ohthat's so fun you know and
wanted to delight in thoselittle things and the things
(10:13):
around me and things that maybeother people didn't notice or
didn't appreciate or was likeokay whatever you know and so I
think I've always had thatinside of me but never felt like
it was, it was okay to delightin them and openly and, and, um,
(10:38):
and fully, um, even to myself,you know, like I would notice it
and be like, Oh, you know, butthen kind of dismiss it in my
own head without saying anythingto anybody.
And so, um, yeah, I think it, Ithink too, I've been reading
(10:59):
lots of books and self-helpbecause this has been in my
heart.
I wanted to figure this out.
How do I fully embrace myselfand be okay with that?
And so I think there was a lotof stepping stones that kind of
led to this fully like, oh, thatwas the last kind of thing that
(11:25):
needed to kind of fall intoplace for me.
Right.
And there's so much resistanceto it too.
For both of us, when we firstheard it, it was this like, I
don't know.
Can I do that?
Is that allowed?
Is that allowed?
Am I allowed to just find– joyand like stop and smell the
(11:45):
roses am I allowed to just liketake those moments like
literally stop and smell theroses yeah on my walk right and
not feel like oh somebody'sgonna think I'm so weird for
yeah or stopping and smellingthe roses you know it's gonna
inconvenience somebody or yeahyou know people are gonna think
you're weird or you know yeah nojust yeah enjoy the beauty in
(12:10):
life and, and not just, youknow, in general, but what
genuinely excites you, whatgenuinely makes you feel more
alive and, you know, excited toget out of bed every day, just
noticing those moments andhaving appreciation for them.
(12:30):
And, you know, I think there's alot of, um, You know, just this
idea of it just being– what'sthe word I'm looking for?
Kind of, I don't know, taboo or–Well, yeah, like kind of
selfish, kind of fanciful, kindof, you know, like you're just
(12:54):
living, you know, in your ownlittle world and you're not
being realistic.
Yeah.
You know, all of those kind ofideas like just get like thrust
on us when– We really shouldjust come back to ourselves and
find joy and delight in ourlives.
And what an impact that makes inevery aspect of it.
(13:19):
I mean, for us as artists, ithelps us lean into what we're
creating and wanting to create.
And then we produce moreimpactful art.
more meaningful work.
And then there's more joy.
(13:41):
There's more joy in the process.
There's more joy in all of it.
But then that also, it impactsbeing a parent.
SPEAKER_02 (13:51):
It
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
impacts friendships.
Every aspect of your lifebecause you're showing up more
fully as you.
I don't think we really fullygrasp that.
Like, I don't think I fullygrasp that either, you know, but
of, of how impactful that is andhow important that is to show up
(14:13):
fully as you.
I think we just discountourselves so often.
Yeah.
That is like not that big of adeal.
It's fine.
You know, I wouldn't make thatbig of a difference, but when
you are showing up fully as you,as yourself in your full
goodness and beauty and light,it's, it spreads, it spreads
(14:35):
and, um, it inspires also, youknow, it, it just spreads so
much goodness and so much lightand so much, I don't know, I
just, all the good things,truth, beauty, you know, all the
good things.
And I feel like, I don't know,there's something you said
earlier, but I feel like we, um,we kind of go through this and
(14:58):
feel like delighting in thoselittle things and taking time,
you know, and pausing and livingin that head space, like you
were saying, is kind of likethis fanciful, you know,
unrealistic kind of, you're justin your head and you're not in
the real world.
(15:20):
But the light coming through thetrees and the beautiful flowers
and the beauty around us, thatactually is the real world.
Right?
It is.
That is the real world, right?
Especially when you think aboutit.
A lot of us do live infantasies, but they're like
doomsday fantasies.
The anxiety, the worst casescenarios.
(15:45):
A lot of us roll through that inour minds.
It's there.
It's in the back of our minds.
We're constantly worried aboutit.
Problem solving.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And instead, it's like we coulduse that energy to notice the
beauty, the good things, themagical moments, the moments of
joy.
(16:06):
I mean, if you just take asecond to think about, imagine
that difference of those twomindsets of the spiraling, the
negative, the just fully in yourhead, thinking about things,
thinking about problems,stressing and walking through
life.
I mean, we were just talking theother day.
It's like, we, we don't evenlike, we go through life
(16:30):
pretending so often that likethings don't exist.
Like other people don't exist.
Like at the grocery store, youdon't even, you don't make eye
contact.
You like, you just go through,you like get your stuff.
You're all about you and whatyou do.
And you know, you just like,that's the way that our culture
goes through life.
Yeah.
And, and then if you contrastthat with So being in your head,
(16:52):
being spiraling, you know, allof that, that doomsday, and then
contrast that with looking atyour surroundings, like actually
paying attention to what'saround you and feeling grounded
and in your body and like,noticing things that are around
(17:14):
you and smelling things that arearound you and hearing the
things that are going on around,like all of your senses and what
a more, like a full bodyexperience that is.
And it's so much calmer.
Yeah.
It's so much calmer and so muchmore comforting too.
Yeah.
And I think if we took theactual time to practice that and
(17:40):
to notice that, the thingsaround us, I think our world
would be a lot calmer place.
Oh, for sure.
And, and, you know, it, it'sreally living in the moment and
being in your, like reallycoming back and like being in
your body, being in the momentand making the most of the
(18:02):
moments that that we have.
Yeah.
Like I was telling you the otherday is like I walked into my
kitchen and I had a bunch ofdirty dishes in the sink that I
needed to take care of.
But at the same time, there wasgorgeous sunlight coming in
through the window and it waslike making all those dirty
(18:23):
dishes sparkle.
And it was just not something Iwould like take a picture of.
But at the same time, it was sobeautiful.
Right.
You know, and just like I mean,as an artist, I noticed light a
lot.
I've done a lot of studying ofart or of art of, of light.
Yeah.
And so it's something that I donotice a lot.
And I, I do find a lot of, ofjoy in it.
(18:47):
Like it just, you know, likewinter ends and spring comes and
you start getting those likebeautiful, beautiful, sunny
days, beautiful, sunny days.
And it just fills me up and itmakes me so excited to just be
alive.
Yeah.
And it's, In the past, I wouldhave walked into that kitchen
and been like, oh my gosh, Ihave so much to do.
I have so much work to do.
(19:07):
I can't even wrap my brainaround taking care of these
dirty dishes.
Instant overwhelm.
Instead, it's like, you knowwhat?
I can just look at that light.
It's so beautiful.
Allow myself that moment ofpeace and happiness.
(19:28):
It's kind of a silly example,but it's really just making the
best of the moments that wehave.
Yeah.
I mean, I was on the drive overhere this morning and, um, kind
of did the same thing where Iwas stopped at a red light and I
looked over and there's like amedian, you know, with a tree
and grass in, in between thelanes.
(19:48):
And it, and it was just thistree with the, with the leaves
starting to bloom and, andgreen, you know, and the light
was coming through it and thenkind of like sparkling on the
grass.
And, and And it was like, wow,that's so beautiful.
And then there was like a gasstation right behind it, you
know, but it's like, it wasn'tall beautiful, but it was that
(20:09):
small little pocket of beauty.
Right.
Right.
And it gave me so much joy.
And whereas normally, you know,you're just going through and
it's like, oh, there's the,there's gas station.
There's this, you know, it'sjust like, oh, it's normal.
But having that pause andnoticing and paying attention.
(20:30):
it gave me that little, thatlittle brief pocket of beauty
and peace and, and wonder oflike, wow, how the light comes
through the leaves.
And, and then, you know, I too,as an artist was like, I wonder
how I draw that, you know, whichis, you know, it's a beautiful
thing about being an artist.
That's something I really lovenoticing, but it doesn't have to
(20:53):
just be, you know, as an artistmindset.
But, but finding those littlepockets in our days that are,
that are beautiful.
Even when we're going throughhard times.
(21:32):
We're able to look at thatmoment and we like, you know,
have this conversation about,you know, like even when the bad
things are there because theyhappen and they come up and
there's hard things that we haveto deal with and go through, but
there's still beauty likeintermingled in that.
And there's love.
Yeah.
And, you know, if we only focuson the bad, then we're so
(21:57):
missing out.
UNKNOWN (21:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:58):
we're missing out on life.
We're missing out on ourselves.
We're missing out onrelationships.
Like, yeah, there's just,there's so much goodness in the
world that, um, it would do uswell to focus more.
Yeah.
I heard, um, a podcast, um,Oprah Winfrey was being
interviewed, um, by Jamie KernLima.
(22:21):
She's, she's the author of thebook worthy and it is just so
amazing.
Um, But in that interview, Idon't remember what question
Jamie asked Oprah, but Iremember Oprah saying, you
cannot fully become like yourfull truest self without, if you
(22:48):
don't kind of get out ofyourself.
And not just focus.
So I'm, I'm paraphrasing thisterribly, but, um, um, you know,
just the, the fact that you haveto have a broader perspective,
you know, and, and that's reallythe key to, um, to becoming
(23:12):
your, your best self.
SPEAKER_02 (23:14):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (23:15):
Um, And I think we so often just focus.
So we have tunnel vision, youknow, we do, we have tunnel
vision.
We get in these modes of justproblems, problems, problems, or
solving, solving, solving, orthis thing, this thing, you
know, and, and we don't lookoutward and we don't appreciate
the things around us as muchbecause we just, we just move
(23:37):
right past it, you know?
Yeah.
And, and we just are in our gomode.
And so I, I, have always reallyliked doing a gratitude journal.
I've done it since I was ateenager and had off and on
years where I haven't done it.
And then I got back into it, butit's really helped me.
But recently since hearing thismindset of delight, I was like,
(24:04):
instead of doing a gratitudejournal, I want to do a delight
journal.
Like what delights me.
What delighted me today?
That's what I write on my page.
What delighted me today?
Yeah.
I love this.
I love this so much.
Yeah.
And just that simple littleswitch too from gratitude to
(24:24):
delight.
I don't know.
Both are great.
Yeah.
But it was, I really likedthinking of it in that way,
framing it that way.
What delighted me today?
You know, what filled me up andgave me energy and made me happy
and made me smile and feel good,you know?
Yeah.
What delighted me.
And I think as I practice thatmore, it's going to, it's going
(24:46):
to be more apparent and italready has, you know, my
thinking of it, um, trying tothink of it as in my days and
what I've seen and things likethat.
Um, yeah, it's just, it reallyhelps.
And that really helps too.
Like you said, get through thereally hard things, right.
When we have that Andemotionally.
(25:09):
Yeah.
And just, and see thingsdifferently.
in a different perspective
SPEAKER_02 (25:23):
and
SPEAKER_00 (25:25):
in a more, I think, rounded perspective too, you
know?
Right.
Because we can't just dismissthe bad.
It's there.
Because it's there.
That's not healthy either.
Right.
Right?
But being real, like this was areally hard day.
But also, you know, I reallyloved– I don't know the sweet,
the air smelled really sweetlast night, you know, in the
(25:47):
evening and it felt like, likeflorals, you know, and it has
like chocolate.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like I had a few moments oflaughter with my child.
I got a phone call from myfriend.
Yeah.
All the little things.
Cause even, even though they'relittle, if we add them up, they
become big, they make a bigdifference.
(26:09):
They do make a difference.
UNKNOWN (26:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:11):
Yeah.
And I mean, this is all what– Ilove that you're doing the
Delight Journal.
We talked about that.
I have not been– I haven't beenwriting in my– I need to start.
It's hard to– It's been off andon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyways, I want to start doingthat.
But I've been trying to noticemore and just letting myself
(26:34):
feel– and notice things that getme excited and to not tamp that
down.
Yeah.
Like that's the big thing.
It's like just letting myselfhave those moments and just
being excited and having fun andto not, not, yeah, just not tamp
it down, not suppress, notsuppress who I am.
Just let it be.
(26:55):
Which is, it's a, It's a bigdeal.
It is a big deal.
It's a big deal.
It can be, I mean, it's soingrained and it's so taught and
we have so many habits, years ofhabits of doing that.
SPEAKER_01 (27:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:10):
And so being able to even recognize is, is big, you
know, is great.
Yeah.
And then being able to letyourself have a moment of that,
you know, like not immediatelyshut it down.
That's the next step.
That's also, that's a greatstep.
You know, that's also, that'sgrowth.
(27:32):
And then, you know, hopefullythen the next step.
Yeah.
It always starts in small, smallsteps.
Right.
And, you know, I feel likethat's the healthiest, best way
to go about it because that'sgoing to bring the lasting
impact.
change because it really is youknow we're rewiring our brains
and rewiring our nervous systemsyeah to allow ourselves to see
(27:54):
the good things and let the goodthings be safe yeah building
that new pathway in our brainyeah so I mean I feel like this
is just Everything that the artpiece experiment is supposed to
be about.
Exactly.
You know, it's like coming backto ourselves.
And when we started this, youknow, we didn't have that idea
(28:16):
of delight.
I feel like we did, but wedidn't have it fully.
We didn't have the words.
We didn't have the words.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We didn't, we weren't fullygiving ourself.
That permission.
Yeah.
Because we didn't realize weneeded to.
And then when we realized weneeded to.
It was like, oh.
Like, yes.
Click.
It just made everything so muchmore clear.
(28:37):
Yes.
So we really want to challengeyou to just let yourself delight
in things.
We just want to extend thatchallenge.
Get curious about what delightsyou.
Yeah.
Ask, what delights me?
What do I delight in?
What makes me feel good?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(28:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
(29:21):
want to spread that a littlemore yeah what a difference it's
already making and we want tosee that for you too so we want
to hear if you if you would liketo share please leave us a
comment and um and let us knowyeah share share something that
delights you today we reallywant to hear about it and it'll
(29:41):
make our day a little brightertoo yeah all right we'll see you
next time That's it for today,friend.
Thanks for spending this timewith us.
We hope you're leaving with alittle more light, a little more
peace, and maybe even a nudge togo be creative just because it
brings a little more joy to yourlife.
If anything in this episodespoke to your heart, sparked a
(30:04):
thought, or made you smile, we'dlove it if you'd follow the
show, leave a quick five-starreview, or share it with someone
who might need a little creativeencouragement too.
And remember, your creativitymatters.
Your voice matters.
You matter.
We're cheering you on Alwaysuntil next time, keep making,
keep softening and keep showingup as your whole beautiful self.
Thank you.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Art PeaceExperiment.
We're your hosts, two artistsand friends.
I'm Tasha.
And I'm Brianna.
At the end of 2024, we decidedwe wanted to cultivate more
safety, peace, love, alignment,and excitement through our art
and our art practices.
(00:24):
So here we are sharing ourjourney with you.
And we're so excited you'rehere.
We hope you enjoy ourconversations.
They're honest, raw, just Justtwo friends talking to each
other about the realities oflife and creativity.
We're so excited for you to joinus and be along with us for the
journey.
(00:46):
A few months ago, you hadsomeone challenge you to lean
into what delights you.
And you came and talked to meabout it.
And I think we both kind of hadthe same reaction to this.
Yeah.
Of just...
I'm allowed to do that.
Excuse me?
(01:08):
What?
We can just delight in thingsand that's okay?
That's allowed and it can bequirky and weird and stuff that
is fun and we don't have tototally conform and we can take
time for that.
Yes.
(01:29):
taking time out to pause and notdo things and delight in simple
things too.
I think that's huge.
Yeah.
So it was a really big momentfor me when I heard this idea, I
(01:49):
guess, of just living in delightand having that be a way of
life, you know?
Right.
Um, and I think it was, it's, Ithink for me, it's kind of been
a process of coming to acceptmyself and, um, kind of figuring
(02:12):
out what I, what I like, who Iam, what delights me, you know,
like what I really connect with.
And over the last little fewyears, you know, a little while,
um, It's been a process.
It's been on my mind for a longtime.
And I've been trying to figurethat out, especially amidst
(02:35):
motherhood.
I think that really kind ofthrows you into that where you
get so much into taking care ofthis little human being and then
you're like, who am I?
And you lose yourself.
I think a lot of people losethemselves in motherhood and
parenthood.
But since my son's been inschool the last few years.
(03:01):
And I've had more time to reallyreflect and figure out what do I
want?
And now I have time, you know?
Yeah.
And so I've been on that journeya little bit, but it wasn't
until, yeah, just a few monthsago where I heard that that it
(03:22):
really– Made the switch, Ithink.
Yeah.
Gave yourself permission.
Yeah.
Like, this is a valid option.
It's not a bad thing.
Right.
Which I feel like growing up,we're told, you know, like,
hurry up.
work harder.
Yeah.
All of that kind of quit messingaround.
(03:45):
Yeah.
That kind of mentality.
And yeah.
And you don't get to stop andsmell the roses.
You don't get to, you don't getdistracted.
Keep going.
You know, I know if I'm doingthat to my son too, like, Nope,
we just got to go.
Let's go.
Like, you know, stay focused.
Right.
Right.
It's just so much a part of our,of our culture.
And, and like there are timesfor that.
(04:06):
Yes.
Right.
But, But not all the time.
Not all the time.
That shouldn't be every moment.
I think, yeah.
And I think so often we just getso in the go mode.
That's our, you know, hustleculture and just you have to
work really hard and do a lotand go, go, go, you know, and
(04:31):
taking breaks for– yourself tojust do nothing to just sit and
do nothing like we don't evensit and do nothing because we
sit and we scroll or we you knowmake a checklist or we do check
our emails you know we're alwaysdoing something right we're
never really unplugged in oursociety where we just sit and
(04:53):
and and think you know it has tobe like a conscious effort in
our society now and so takingthat time to reflect and think,
what do I delight in?
It takes, it takes a kind of aconscious effort.
(05:13):
Yeah, it does.
It can be really hard.
Well, it's interesting becausegrowing up, you know, we're kind
of, we're programmed to likeplease and appease our parents
and, you know.
Well, that's how we're wiredtoo, biologically.
That's how we're wired, yeah.
It's like, you know, as littlekids, we tend to like what, they
like and get excited about itand like there's nothing wrong
(05:34):
with that but then you know aswe come become teenagers it's
like you start separating fromyour parents a little bit more
but then like friends becomemore important and you're trying
to just kind of fit in and umthen you know as you get older
if you you know get married oryou know dating and having
relationships and it's stillthat kind of like fitting in
(05:56):
yeah it's a big part of ofgrowing up is just kind of like
finding where you fit.
And sometimes we lose a littlebit of ourselves.
Yeah.
I feel like a lot of times, uh,we live for others.
Yeah.
Rather than ourselves.
Yeah.
And we're not really, not reallytaught how to live for ourselves
(06:19):
and how to connect withourselves.
Yeah.
Um, because we, um, you know,we're like you said, from a
really young age, like we'retaught, do this, don't do that.
You know, we're, we're reallyguided by our parents, which is
their job and that's whatthey're supposed to do.
And it's totally fine.
No knock on parents.
(06:41):
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, um, And then we, we, youknow, listen to our friends and
engage what the social group,and that's part of our survival
mechanism, right?
Where we have to, we have tostay connected to our drive in
order to survive.
And so that's, that's all wiredand it's a normal, natural
thing.
Right.
But the thing that we are sooften missing that I feel like
(07:02):
we kind of, we, people grow upand then I mean, that's why we
have like midlife crisis, youknow?
Yeah.
Who am I?
Exactly.
Then we kind of try to figureout who we are as an individual
rather than a person that fitsin this group, right?
As we go off, we don't have ourfriend group anymore.
(07:25):
We get married.
We go, you know, we go have ajob.
We like, you know, we justseparate.
And it's interesting too becausewhen you grow up and you do
move, And it's like a cultureshock.
Like even if you move somewhere,you know, in the States, you
know, like for us, we grew up inthe States and just like moving
to a new place is there is someculture shock and things that
(07:49):
are different.
Like I grew up in Seattle andpeople there wear fleece like
all the time.
Like it's just a normal
SPEAKER_02 (07:59):
thing.
SPEAKER_00 (08:00):
you know like fleece sweaters and jackets and stuff
and then moving to other placesit was like oh that's an
interesting style you have yeahand I never thought about it as
like wearing a fleece jacket isnot stylish it's not like my
style but yeah it's it's justwhat people wore there right and
realizing that that wasn'tacross the board like everywhere
(08:23):
that's uh yeah you know like achoice people make it's not like
a normal standard thing foreveryone yeah so the people are
like Oh, that's interesting.
It's an interesting choice.
It's just like, what?
What are you talking about?
Yeah.
And just like realizing theworld is like a bigger, I don't
know, a bigger, there's so muchmore possibility.
(08:46):
Yeah.
And it's just, it's interestingto see how, where we grew up and
the people that we spend ourtime with really shape us in a
lot of ways.
And then I think that's part ofwhat the midlife crisis is too
of like you kind of break fromthat and realize like wait do I
(09:06):
even like these things like whoeven am I how do I fit in my new
environment and be true tomyself be true to myself and I
feel like when we heard this youknow challenge of I mean it was
a soft challenge it wasn't likethis hard like go and delight
yourself it's just like here's anew way of thinking about things
but when we heard that it was umalmost just permission to come
(09:31):
back into alignment.
Yeah.
And to, and to just notice likewhat brings me, what brings me
joy and like just even the smallmoments, you know, noticing how
the sunlight, you know, hits theleaves and, and, you know, just
small things that are like,just, yeah, just bring joy.
(09:53):
Yeah.
And it's interesting because Ifeel like I've always, you know,
kind of leaned towards doingthat like I have always kind of
done that you know like saw thelittle flowers in the cracks of
the sidewalk and it was like ohthat's so fun you know and
wanted to delight in thoselittle things and the things
(10:13):
around me and things that maybeother people didn't notice or
didn't appreciate or was likeokay whatever you know and so I
think I've always had thatinside of me but never felt like
it was, it was okay to delightin them and openly and, and, um,
(10:38):
and fully, um, even to myself,you know, like I would notice it
and be like, Oh, you know, butthen kind of dismiss it in my
own head without saying anythingto anybody.
And so, um, yeah, I think it, Ithink too, I've been reading
(10:59):
lots of books and self-helpbecause this has been in my
heart.
I wanted to figure this out.
How do I fully embrace myselfand be okay with that?
And so I think there was a lotof stepping stones that kind of
led to this fully like, oh, thatwas the last kind of thing that
(11:25):
needed to kind of fall intoplace for me.
Right.
And there's so much resistanceto it too.
For both of us, when we firstheard it, it was this like, I
don't know.
Can I do that?
Is that allowed?
Is that allowed?
Am I allowed to just find– joyand like stop and smell the
(11:45):
roses am I allowed to just liketake those moments like
literally stop and smell theroses yeah on my walk right and
not feel like oh somebody'sgonna think I'm so weird for
yeah or stopping and smellingthe roses you know it's gonna
inconvenience somebody or yeahyou know people are gonna think
you're weird or you know yeah nojust yeah enjoy the beauty in
(12:10):
life and, and not just, youknow, in general, but what
genuinely excites you, whatgenuinely makes you feel more
alive and, you know, excited toget out of bed every day, just
noticing those moments andhaving appreciation for them.
(12:30):
And, you know, I think there's alot of, um, You know, just this
idea of it just being– what'sthe word I'm looking for?
Kind of, I don't know, taboo or–Well, yeah, like kind of
selfish, kind of fanciful, kindof, you know, like you're just
(12:54):
living, you know, in your ownlittle world and you're not
being realistic.
Yeah.
You know, all of those kind ofideas like just get like thrust
on us when– We really shouldjust come back to ourselves and
find joy and delight in ourlives.
And what an impact that makes inevery aspect of it.
(13:19):
I mean, for us as artists, ithelps us lean into what we're
creating and wanting to create.
And then we produce moreimpactful art.
more meaningful work.
And then there's more joy.
(13:41):
There's more joy in the process.
There's more joy in all of it.
But then that also, it impactsbeing a parent.
SPEAKER_02 (13:51):
It
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
impacts friendships.
Every aspect of your lifebecause you're showing up more
fully as you.
I don't think we really fullygrasp that.
Like, I don't think I fullygrasp that either, you know, but
of, of how impactful that is andhow important that is to show up
(14:13):
fully as you.
I think we just discountourselves so often.
Yeah.
That is like not that big of adeal.
It's fine.
You know, I wouldn't make thatbig of a difference, but when
you are showing up fully as you,as yourself in your full
goodness and beauty and light,it's, it spreads, it spreads
(14:35):
and, um, it inspires also, youknow, it, it just spreads so
much goodness and so much lightand so much, I don't know, I
just, all the good things,truth, beauty, you know, all the
good things.
And I feel like, I don't know,there's something you said
earlier, but I feel like we, um,we kind of go through this and
(14:58):
feel like delighting in thoselittle things and taking time,
you know, and pausing and livingin that head space, like you
were saying, is kind of likethis fanciful, you know,
unrealistic kind of, you're justin your head and you're not in
the real world.
(15:20):
But the light coming through thetrees and the beautiful flowers
and the beauty around us, thatactually is the real world.
Right?
It is.
That is the real world, right?
Especially when you think aboutit.
A lot of us do live infantasies, but they're like
doomsday fantasies.
The anxiety, the worst casescenarios.
(15:45):
A lot of us roll through that inour minds.
It's there.
It's in the back of our minds.
We're constantly worried aboutit.
Problem solving.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And instead, it's like we coulduse that energy to notice the
beauty, the good things, themagical moments, the moments of
joy.
(16:06):
I mean, if you just take asecond to think about, imagine
that difference of those twomindsets of the spiraling, the
negative, the just fully in yourhead, thinking about things,
thinking about problems,stressing and walking through
life.
I mean, we were just talking theother day.
It's like, we, we don't evenlike, we go through life
(16:30):
pretending so often that likethings don't exist.
Like other people don't exist.
Like at the grocery store, youdon't even, you don't make eye
contact.
You like, you just go through,you like get your stuff.
You're all about you and whatyou do.
And you know, you just like,that's the way that our culture
goes through life.
Yeah.
And, and then if you contrastthat with So being in your head,
(16:52):
being spiraling, you know, allof that, that doomsday, and then
contrast that with looking atyour surroundings, like actually
paying attention to what'saround you and feeling grounded
and in your body and like,noticing things that are around
(17:14):
you and smelling things that arearound you and hearing the
things that are going on around,like all of your senses and what
a more, like a full bodyexperience that is.
And it's so much calmer.
Yeah.
It's so much calmer and so muchmore comforting too.
Yeah.
And I think if we took theactual time to practice that and
(17:40):
to notice that, the thingsaround us, I think our world
would be a lot calmer place.
Oh, for sure.
And, and, you know, it, it'sreally living in the moment and
being in your, like reallycoming back and like being in
your body, being in the momentand making the most of the
(18:02):
moments that that we have.
Yeah.
Like I was telling you the otherday is like I walked into my
kitchen and I had a bunch ofdirty dishes in the sink that I
needed to take care of.
But at the same time, there wasgorgeous sunlight coming in
through the window and it waslike making all those dirty
(18:23):
dishes sparkle.
And it was just not something Iwould like take a picture of.
But at the same time, it was sobeautiful.
Right.
You know, and just like I mean,as an artist, I noticed light a
lot.
I've done a lot of studying ofart or of art of, of light.
Yeah.
And so it's something that I donotice a lot.
And I, I do find a lot of, ofjoy in it.
(18:47):
Like it just, you know, likewinter ends and spring comes and
you start getting those likebeautiful, beautiful, sunny
days, beautiful, sunny days.
And it just fills me up and itmakes me so excited to just be
alive.
Yeah.
And it's, In the past, I wouldhave walked into that kitchen
and been like, oh my gosh, Ihave so much to do.
I have so much work to do.
(19:07):
I can't even wrap my brainaround taking care of these
dirty dishes.
Instant overwhelm.
Instead, it's like, you knowwhat?
I can just look at that light.
It's so beautiful.
Allow myself that moment ofpeace and happiness.
(19:28):
It's kind of a silly example,but it's really just making the
best of the moments that wehave.
Yeah.
I mean, I was on the drive overhere this morning and, um, kind
of did the same thing where Iwas stopped at a red light and I
looked over and there's like amedian, you know, with a tree
and grass in, in between thelanes.
(19:48):
And it, and it was just thistree with the, with the leaves
starting to bloom and, andgreen, you know, and the light
was coming through it and thenkind of like sparkling on the
grass.
And, and And it was like, wow,that's so beautiful.
And then there was like a gasstation right behind it, you
know, but it's like, it wasn'tall beautiful, but it was that
(20:09):
small little pocket of beauty.
Right.
Right.
And it gave me so much joy.
And whereas normally, you know,you're just going through and
it's like, oh, there's the,there's gas station.
There's this, you know, it'sjust like, oh, it's normal.
But having that pause andnoticing and paying attention.
(20:30):
it gave me that little, thatlittle brief pocket of beauty
and peace and, and wonder oflike, wow, how the light comes
through the leaves.
And, and then, you know, I too,as an artist was like, I wonder
how I draw that, you know, whichis, you know, it's a beautiful
thing about being an artist.
That's something I really lovenoticing, but it doesn't have to
(20:53):
just be, you know, as an artistmindset.
But, but finding those littlepockets in our days that are,
that are beautiful.
Even when we're going throughhard times.
(21:32):
We're able to look at thatmoment and we like, you know,
have this conversation about,you know, like even when the bad
things are there because theyhappen and they come up and
there's hard things that we haveto deal with and go through, but
there's still beauty likeintermingled in that.
And there's love.
Yeah.
And, you know, if we only focuson the bad, then we're so
(21:57):
missing out.
UNKNOWN (21:58):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:58):
we're missing out on life.
We're missing out on ourselves.
We're missing out onrelationships.
Like, yeah, there's just,there's so much goodness in the
world that, um, it would do uswell to focus more.
Yeah.
I heard, um, a podcast, um,Oprah Winfrey was being
interviewed, um, by Jamie KernLima.
(22:21):
She's, she's the author of thebook worthy and it is just so
amazing.
Um, But in that interview, Idon't remember what question
Jamie asked Oprah, but Iremember Oprah saying, you
cannot fully become like yourfull truest self without, if you
(22:48):
don't kind of get out ofyourself.
And not just focus.
So I'm, I'm paraphrasing thisterribly, but, um, um, you know,
just the, the fact that you haveto have a broader perspective,
you know, and, and that's reallythe key to, um, to becoming
(23:12):
your, your best self.
SPEAKER_02 (23:14):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (23:15):
Um, And I think we so often just focus.
So we have tunnel vision, youknow, we do, we have tunnel
vision.
We get in these modes of justproblems, problems, problems, or
solving, solving, solving, orthis thing, this thing, you
know, and, and we don't lookoutward and we don't appreciate
the things around us as muchbecause we just, we just move
(23:37):
right past it, you know?
Yeah.
And, and we just are in our gomode.
And so I, I, have always reallyliked doing a gratitude journal.
I've done it since I was ateenager and had off and on
years where I haven't done it.
And then I got back into it, butit's really helped me.
But recently since hearing thismindset of delight, I was like,
(24:04):
instead of doing a gratitudejournal, I want to do a delight
journal.
Like what delights me.
What delighted me today?
That's what I write on my page.
What delighted me today?
Yeah.
I love this.
I love this so much.
Yeah.
And just that simple littleswitch too from gratitude to
(24:24):
delight.
I don't know.
Both are great.
Yeah.
But it was, I really likedthinking of it in that way,
framing it that way.
What delighted me today?
You know, what filled me up andgave me energy and made me happy
and made me smile and feel good,you know?
Yeah.
What delighted me.
And I think as I practice thatmore, it's going to, it's going
(24:46):
to be more apparent and italready has, you know, my
thinking of it, um, trying tothink of it as in my days and
what I've seen and things likethat.
Um, yeah, it's just, it reallyhelps.
And that really helps too.
Like you said, get through thereally hard things, right.
When we have that Andemotionally.
(25:09):
Yeah.
And just, and see thingsdifferently.
in a different perspective
SPEAKER_02 (25:23):
and
SPEAKER_00 (25:25):
in a more, I think, rounded perspective too, you
know?
Right.
Because we can't just dismissthe bad.
It's there.
Because it's there.
That's not healthy either.
Right.
Right?
But being real, like this was areally hard day.
But also, you know, I reallyloved– I don't know the sweet,
the air smelled really sweetlast night, you know, in the
(25:47):
evening and it felt like, likeflorals, you know, and it has
like chocolate.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like I had a few moments oflaughter with my child.
I got a phone call from myfriend.
Yeah.
All the little things.
Cause even, even though they'relittle, if we add them up, they
become big, they make a bigdifference.
(26:09):
They do make a difference.
UNKNOWN (26:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (26:11):
Yeah.
And I mean, this is all what– Ilove that you're doing the
Delight Journal.
We talked about that.
I have not been– I haven't beenwriting in my– I need to start.
It's hard to– It's been off andon.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anyways, I want to start doingthat.
But I've been trying to noticemore and just letting myself
(26:34):
feel– and notice things that getme excited and to not tamp that
down.
Yeah.
Like that's the big thing.
It's like just letting myselfhave those moments and just
being excited and having fun andto not, not, yeah, just not tamp
it down, not suppress, notsuppress who I am.
Just let it be.
(26:55):
Which is, it's a, It's a bigdeal.
It is a big deal.
It's a big deal.
It can be, I mean, it's soingrained and it's so taught and
we have so many habits, years ofhabits of doing that.
SPEAKER_01 (27:10):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (27:10):
And so being able to even recognize is, is big, you
know, is great.
Yeah.
And then being able to letyourself have a moment of that,
you know, like not immediatelyshut it down.
That's the next step.
That's also, that's a greatstep.
You know, that's also, that'sgrowth.
(27:32):
And then, you know, hopefullythen the next step.
Yeah.
It always starts in small, smallsteps.
Right.
And, you know, I feel likethat's the healthiest, best way
to go about it because that'sgoing to bring the lasting
impact.
change because it really is youknow we're rewiring our brains
and rewiring our nervous systemsyeah to allow ourselves to see
(27:54):
the good things and let the goodthings be safe yeah building
that new pathway in our brainyeah so I mean I feel like this
is just Everything that the artpiece experiment is supposed to
be about.
Exactly.
You know, it's like coming backto ourselves.
And when we started this, youknow, we didn't have that idea
(28:16):
of delight.
I feel like we did, but wedidn't have it fully.
We didn't have the words.
We didn't have the words.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We didn't, we weren't fullygiving ourself.
That permission.
Yeah.
Because we didn't realize weneeded to.
And then when we realized weneeded to.
It was like, oh.
Like, yes.
Click.
It just made everything so muchmore clear.
(28:37):
Yes.
So we really want to challengeyou to just let yourself delight
in things.
We just want to extend thatchallenge.
Get curious about what delightsyou.
Yeah.
Ask, what delights me?
What do I delight in?
What makes me feel good?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(28:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
(29:21):
want to spread that a littlemore yeah what a difference it's
already making and we want tosee that for you too so we want
to hear if you if you would liketo share please leave us a
comment and um and let us knowyeah share share something that
delights you today we reallywant to hear about it and it'll
(29:41):
make our day a little brightertoo yeah all right we'll see you
next time That's it for today,friend.
Thanks for spending this timewith us.
We hope you're leaving with alittle more light, a little more
peace, and maybe even a nudge togo be creative just because it
brings a little more joy to yourlife.
If anything in this episodespoke to your heart, sparked a
(30:04):
thought, or made you smile, we'dlove it if you'd follow the
show, leave a quick five-starreview, or share it with someone
who might need a little creativeencouragement too.
And remember, your creativitymatters.
Your voice matters.
You matter.
We're cheering you on Alwaysuntil next time, keep making,
keep softening and keep showingup as your whole beautiful self.
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