April 27, 2023 • 37 mins
Going old school today with 4 totally different things! If you procrastinate...you're going to enjoy the FIRST THING, where Amy breaks down the 'Pomodoro Technique' so you can give it a try the next time you catch yourself putting something off. Remember: “The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.” — Rita Emmett
Think you have adult ADHD? The SECOND THING is for you, but it also turned into a PSA to do your breast exams, be your own advocate & be as proactive as possible with your health.
THIRD THING is a blog post (You Are Worthy) from a listener named Alyssa Khrystyne! She wrote about her experience at the live podcast in Nashville & shared 4 main things that she took away from being there. We also love the super cool way God answered Alyssa's prayer about who to bring with her to the live...so special!!
Amy's friends at @myLIFEspeaks inspired the FOURTH THING with a heartbreaking update from Haiti & an urgent request for prayer. Go to their IG to see the post that Amy shared & tap the link in their bio for a script if you decide to reach out to your representatives.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Cats up little food for yourself life.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh it's pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, it's pretty beautiful, beautiful that for a little more,
said he You're kicking with four with Amy Brown, Happy Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Four Things Amy here and today is og style for
very different things. We're talking everything from procrastination and a
technique that you can try out that's going to help
you with that ADHD and whether or not you maybe
need to go get tested. A blog post that was
written by one of you that is a recap of
(00:57):
the Four Things Live.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But it's more than that, yea.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It is actually about something really cool that God orchestrated
in this listener's life. And I love that she was
paying attention to this detail because it's very very neat
how a prayer was answered and it unfolded all because
of the Live. And then I also have an update
from Haiti. It's heartbreaking. It's hard to hear and even
(01:24):
give a little disclaimer if you've got kids in the
car or near you when you're listening to this. I
went ahead and I made it the fourth Thing for
a reason, so it's at the end, so if you
can listen to it, though I would encourage you to.
It's not the fourth things, so that you'll just be like, Okay,
I don't really need to listen to that. My hope
is that you will, but you'll just be able to
(01:45):
make sure you're in the right place at the right time,
surrounded by the right people, and not a bunch of
little people when you're listening to it, because it's heavy stuff.
All right, With all that said, we'll get into the episode.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Here you go.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
First. Yeah, okay, we're going to talk about the Pomodoro method,
which I hope I'm saying that correctly, but pomodoro is
Italian for tomato, but it really has nothing to do
with tomatoes. It has to do with procrastination, which is
something that I personally have dealt with for much of
(02:20):
my life and it still pops up from time to time.
But I am working incredibly hard on not procrastinating.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
There's a Wayne Dyer.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Quote that I really like about procrastination, and it's procrastination
is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today.
And I don't want to live that way. I don't
want to keep up with yesterday and avoid today. I
want to be in today. I don't want to constantly
be chasing all these things that I have to do.
Procrastination taught me how to do thirty minutes of work
in eight hours, and eight hours of work in thirty minutes, which, gosh,
(02:53):
isn't that the truth? That's how I approach studying In college,
I crammed for everything. I just think how much better
I could have done if I would have really put
in the effort and not put things off, which I'm
sure you've heard, never put off until tomorrow. What you
can do well the day after tomorrow, boom. But if
you've been procrastinating a task, or you've got something you
(03:16):
need to do at work, around the house, whatever it is,
I want you to try out the Pomodoro technique. Now,
this guy, Francisco Cirillo, I think that's how you say
his last name. He was struggling to focus in college.
It was like the late eighties, and he really couldn't
study complete assignments. So, feeling overwhelmed, he asked himself to
(03:37):
just commit to ten minutes of focused study time. Now
he's encouraged by this whole challenge and decided, Okay, I
need a legit timer. So we found a tomato shaped
kitchen timer and again tomato and Italian is pomodoro, and
that is how the Pomodoro technique was born.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Now, he went on.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
To write a whole book about the method, but I'm
going to break it down for you simply. Basically, you
get a to do list and a timer does not
have to be a tomato. You set your timer for
twenty five minutes, and you focus on a single task
until the timer goes off. Now, when the timer goes off,
you mark off one of the Pomodoro's like a check
(04:15):
you did it, and record what you completed. I feel
like this is an important step because you can see
what you've accomplished and you're keeping track of things. Then
after you do that, you get to take a five
minute break, and then after four pomodoros you get to
take a longer break, maybe fifteen thirty minutes if you
want to.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
But the point is.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You want to knock out four pomodoros in a row.
But again, you get those five minute breaks in between
and the twenty five minute work sprints. They're the core
of the method.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But here's the deal.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Once a Pomodoro is set, that bell has to ring,
the timer has to go off. The pomodoro is an
invisible unit of time and it cannot be broken, so
you also have to hold yourself accountable. You can't check
in coming emails, team chats, text messages, any ideas, tasks
(05:08):
or requests that come up should be take a note
of to circle back to later. There's task managers that
can help keep you on task. You might have to
put your computer or your phone on do not disturb
so you're not distracted by other things that are coming in.
Because again, you want to focus on this specific thing
(05:29):
for this specific pomodoro. So there you go. See if
that is something that will help you. I feel like
timers help a lot. I've talked about how when I've
got to pick up my house and I keep putting
it off and I'm dreading it and I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I set a timer.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It works for me as a forty two year old adult,
and it works for my kids. Kids love timers too, like, hey,
let's see how much work we can done in ten minutes.
And this is sort of what you're doing to yourself is, hey,
let's see how much I can get done in this
twenty five minute window, and then go take a little
five minute break. But the thing is, after your five
minute break is up, you got to go back and
(06:06):
do your next twenty five minutes until you've completed four.
And I feel like this guy knows what he's talking about,
and he came up with a whole method about it.
So something that you can try out on any little
thing that you might be procrastinating or any big thing.
I'll wrap this thing up with another quote. This one's
from Rita Emmett and she created Emmett's Law in her
(06:28):
book called The Procrastinator's Handbook, Mastering the Art of Doing
It Now. And the quote is the dread of doing
a task uses up more time and energy than doing
the task itself.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And that is so true.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I mean the amount of energy that I have put
in trying to avoid a task, I mean, it's too.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Much to add up.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And you know, if you think about the roots of procrastinating,
I feel like for some it has to do with perfectionism.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It's not necessarily me.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I feel like I can speak for my sister on
this because she said that this is her a ton
of times, but she will put things off because she
wants it to be done perfectly. And she can't do
it that way, then she just doesn't want to do
it at all. I really feel like for me, I'm
just unorganized at times and I don't really have a
good handle on my time, my resources, how to execute,
(07:21):
so then I put it off. And I have convinced
myself that I am better under pressure and I perform
better when I have a small amount of time, but
really I'm stressed out. So what I have done has
gotten more organized as well, and that has helped me
with my procrastination. So if you're a procrastinator and you
want to keep living that way while you do, you
(07:41):
and if you're wanting to work on it, well, maybe
try out the Pomodoro technique. So in the last thing,
we were talking about procrastination, and I do feel like
some of my procrastination, you know, all of it comes
from my eighty HD, and I am open to talking
(08:03):
about that. It's something that I've been tested for twice
once in college and then actually like a month or
so ago, I went and got retested and sure enough, yep,
still have it. And I think it's also something to
be misdiagnosed. I've been talking to friends about that recently
(08:23):
now that we're in our forties, and then you know,
as we're trying to figure ourselves out and see what's
going on with us and why we act the way
that we do, and we're older, so we have the
resources to maybe ask the questions, make the appointments, dig
a little deeper, and figure out what's going on. And
one of my friends recently was completely misdiagnosed, like for
a long time, she was told that she had this
(08:44):
this is going on, and then she realized very recently
that was ADHD. And I'll just go ahead and say
here and now, which everybody listening knows, I'm not a
medical professional, but let's just say you're brand new to
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I'll just clarify that I am.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Not and I am not trying to give any advice
in any way, shape or form. I'm just trying to
encourage you to get tested if you are curious, because
I get emails from people sometimes too asking what medication
I'm on, what medications I've tried, what works, what doesn't work,
And I don't know if in the past, if I've
(09:19):
said specifically what I'm taking, what I've done, I know
I have had to go through a lot of different
things because some of the stuff that works for some friends,
like Kat, for example, she's a licensed therapist that's a
co host of me on the fifth thing. For a
long time she was on this particular medication, and she
talks about ADHD. So I'm not talking about her without
(09:40):
her permission by any means, or behind her back, or
saying anything that she hasn't said. But I was like, oh,
I can't take that. I've tried that before and it
does not work on me because all of our bodies
are different. So when I get emails about ADHD and
people asking me questions, I'm just very hesitant.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I try to share as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
When it comes to your body and your brain and
the science behind you and what's going to help you
and maybe not help you, that is for you to
figure out. But what I can share, and this is
from the DSM five, which is something Kat talks about often.
ADHD and women primarily means a greater likelihood for the
(10:26):
following Failing to give close attention to details or making
careless mistakes and activities, troubleholding attention on tasks, not following
through on instructions, and failing to finish duties, trouble organizing
tasks and activities, getting easily distracted, forgetfulness and daily activities,
internalizing symptoms including mood and anxiety. So if those are
(10:48):
some things that pop up for you, then it's time
to get curious and see what's going on. Some other
reasons to get diagnosed. And like this is just me
speaking from my own personal experience, but if you're at
work and you're struggling with organizing and planning and it's
difficult for you to start in complete projects, and I'm
not just talking about procrastination, it's just really difficult, you
(11:09):
might want to look into getting a test done, getting diagnosed.
In relationships, if you're constantly interrupting people, that is me.
I've had to work on that difficulty waiting for your
turn to speak, definitely me. And then for me on
the mental health side of things, just being unable to
stay still and really be in the moment and enjoy
(11:33):
the moment and be present with your friends, your family,
your people. My brain's always a lot of different places
and I'm fidgeting constantly. If that's something that is happening
to you, you may want to look into it a
little bit further. But also my point in sharing this
is if you're not hearing back from me on email,
(11:56):
or I'm not giving you the answer that you asked
for specifically or that you wanted, is just because I
don't really feel like it's my.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Place at all.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
But I do want to encourage you to get curious.
I think that's the best thing we can do for
ourselves when we have anything going on with our bodies anything,
is to get curious and don't procrastinate that if there's
a doctor's appointment you need to make, or something that
needs to be looked at. And we could be we're
talking ADHD here now, but this could be, you know,
(12:27):
a breast exam. It could be that you haven't been
to your OBGYN in years. I'm someone that I used
to be that way. I would go years without going
to the gynecologists. And I have healthcare, I have insurance.
There's no reason why I should be putting that off.
I understand if you don't have access to that and
it's expensive, I get it. But if there's something going
(12:47):
on and you need to see someone, this is not
something you know to put off. Whatever it is that's
going on for you, that's my encouragement. It's not really
exactly what I've planned on talking about, but for whatever reason,
I like it needs to be said that we need
to be curious and we need to be proactive. That's
why I went and got a colonoscopy a couple of
(13:08):
months ago, is because my mom had anal cancer and
I want to be proactive. I want to get ahead
of it. I want to know. And my obgian was
telling me that I was going to have to go
every year, but then when I got it done, the
I guess she's a gastroontologist.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I don't know her exact title, but whoever did my colonoscopy.
When she met with me afterwards, she told me that
she would like to see me every three years, but
if I have some symptoms pop up to book an
appointment asap and get another colonosophy. It doesn't matter how
much time has passed. Maybe if it's six months from now,
I can go in and get another one, and or
(13:45):
she would encourage me to. And that's something that I
would invest in. I mean, even though I have an
insurance like the Kolonosky, even paying for another one, I
would have to invest in that. But that's that's my health.
That's me wanting to take care of my body, and
not from a place of pure fear, but just wanting
to know what's going on with me and how I
can best care for myself and how I can show
(14:07):
up for myself because I want to show up for others,
like my kids. I want to be around. And this
went a little bit of a different direction than ADHD.
But I often think of thee Ray's wife Ray from
the Bobby Bone Show, Laura. She had breast cancer at
a very young age and she just hit five years remission,
(14:29):
which is amazing. You hit that five year mark and
it is good. That was always the goal for my
mom to make it to the five year mark. If
you make it to the five year mark, you'll be good.
My mom did not. There were times where yes she
was in remission, but she never made it to the
five year mark. And I think of mammograms, that's something
that we often put off.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
If you can book one.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Go if you're of age and it's time for you
to start doing it. But the self exams in the shower.
If you don't know how to do it, go to YouTube,
google it, get to know your body, and that's something
she found something that didn't feel right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Advocate for yourself.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I had another friend on the podcast talking about her
breast cancer journey, Leslie Simon, and there was a time
where I'm pretty sure she was in remission and then
it was returning and she was told that she was
in the clear, and then something didn't feel right, so
she booked another appointment, got a second opinion, and sure enough,
she's really glad, and I'm really glad that she listened
(15:29):
to herself and she advocated for herself and she went
and got another appointment. So apparently this little encouragement needed
to be said. For some reason, it needed to be given.
And maybe it's even for myself, because honestly, I'm not
the best at doing the self exams, like the breast
exams in the shower, and when I say it out
(15:50):
loud to you, I'm picturing like, Okay, I just need
to do it at least, you know, come on, I
could do it once a week when I'm in the shower,
just to you know, get to know myself that way.
The more you know yourself, then the more likely you
are to quickly realize when something is off. If you're
not checking it that often, then it's harder to tell, like, well,
has that been there?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I don't really know.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
But the more familiar we are with our bodies, the better.
The more familiar we are with our behavior, all the
different things, it's time to get curious about a lot
of it. And I'm speaking to myself. So maybe this
little pep talk was for me, and you know, hopefully
for you too, And then hopefully you can find someone
(16:33):
that has a.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Medical license that you can talk to.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Because I appreciate the emails for sure, but when I
start to share specifically what I do for myself, I
would hate to steer you in the wrong direction by
sharing those details or giving you bad advice or guidance.
But I don't see any harm in encouraging you to
pay attention to your body, know your body, be proactive,
(16:56):
don't put things off. I mean that stuff I can
say confidently, and I do not need a medical degree
to say that.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Here we are third, all right for this thing.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I am reading a blog post that was put up
by one of you, a listener named Alissa Christine, who
was at one of the live podcast shows that I
did in Nashville and I happen to see on Instagram
that she tagged me in a post that she put
up sharing her blog about the day, and she included
a quote in the blog. I went to it, read it,
(17:36):
printed it out, and I'm going to read it to
you now. It's Louise Hey quote. I am worthy of
the best things in life, and I now lovingly allow
myself to accept it. And now here's what Alissa shared,
which I think is very encouraging and cool. She said
a few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to attend
(17:57):
a live podcast taping of Four Things with Amy Brown.
For those of you who don't know, I'm a big
Bobby Bone Show fan, and Amy's the co host and
she's created her own podcast. When I found out she
was coming to Nashville, I knew I had to go.
I texted my best friend, who was also a huge man,
and we decided to get tickets. Well, my friend texted
me and said she could no longer go. Two nights
(18:20):
before the show, she told me that she was unable
to come due to a death in the family. We
were both disappointed. However, something really cool came from it.
God's orchestration. After my friend's phone call, I started to
wonder who would go with me. She still paid for
her ticket and just wanted to bring joy and bless
someone with the opportunity to go since she couldn't. She's
amazing like that. I knew I would probably have a
(18:42):
hard time finding someone to go with me because not
many of my friends know who Amy is aside from
me talking about her. At that moment, I prayed that
God would send me the perfect person to go with me.
I prayed that whoever went with me would be blessed
and that whatever was said at the taping would be
what they needed to hear. I reached out to friend
after friend. They all had prior commitments and were not
(19:04):
able to attend. I was just about to give up
and just go by myself until I started scrolling Facebook.
One of my friend's names jumped off the screen at me.
I absolutely adore this friend and was frustrated with myself
for not thinking of her sooner. Even though I knew
she would love it, I was hesitant to ask her
to come with me because I knew that she had
(19:25):
a lot going on and was just as busy as
I was most weekends. Honestly, I was also dreading another letdown,
but something told me that I needed to text her.
I went ahead and texted her, and she said that
she'd loved to go, she just had to double check
a few things. Luckily, she was able to go. We
had the absolute best time and had the best conversations.
(19:45):
We both shared a lot, and the whole day was
healing for both of us. She told me that it
was exactly what she needed to hear and that she
was so thankful that she got to come.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Now, let me tell you the coolest part of it all.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Remember how I said that I had prayed for God
to send the perfect person to go. Well, a few
days later it was put on my heart to count
just how many people I had asked to come with me.
This friend was the seventh friend that I asked. Why
is this important? Well, in the Bible, seven is the
number of perfection and completion. God literally sent me the
(20:19):
perfect person for the event. God truly orchestrated the whole thing,
and I believe with all my heart that she was
the seventh person I reached out to because of my prayer.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
The event was absolutely incredible. The theme was you are worthy.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I don't want to give too much of it away
because I want you to go listen to the whole
thing for yourself. So in four Things with Amy Brown's style,
I will write out the four main things that I
took away from being there. First thing, our brains are reprogrammable.
This is called neuroplasticity. The way it was described is
(20:54):
like a cornfield. If we walk the same path through
a cornfield every day of event eventually we're going to
be able to see the path we made. However, say
we want to change our path. Well day one of
walking a new path, we will barely be able to
see where the corn laid down. Then as days pass,
the new path will become more apparent and the old
(21:15):
path will grow back up. Our self worth works the
same way. For one reason or another, we often go
through life thinking we are not worthy. We are afraid
to try new things or even stop doing the things
we love because we don't feel worthy enough. If we
want to feel worthy, which we all are, we have
to tell ourselves that we are every day. We cannot
(21:37):
compare ourselves to those around us. Comparison is the thief
of joy. Practicing having self worth is just like walking
a new path in the Cornfield. We have to practice
it every day until our old negative self thoughts are
gone well for the most part, anyways. Second thing, One
way we can practice having self worth is through the
(21:59):
power of righting. Have you ever started to retell a
story about a time that you were mad or upset
about something, and then halfway through you realized how silly
it was and that you weren't even really that matter
upset in the first place. Well, writing can do that
same thing for us. It can help us realize that
the situation that we're in maybe isn't that big of
a deal, or the thoughts that we're having or normal,
(22:21):
or sometimes it might help us realize how dangerous they are.
Through writing, we can also go back and see how
God has worked in our lives and how we have
grown as a person. There are several prompts out there
that can help us gain the self worth we deserve
to have.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Writing is very therapeutic.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
It's one of the reasons I started this blog, even
though there are already millions of blogs out there. Third thing,
awareness awareness is powerful. For example, being aware of what
triggers are anxieties can help us handle our anxiety by
avoiding those triggers, or if those triggers are unavoidable, we
can at least mentally prepare ourselves for when they occur.
(23:00):
For example, confrontation of any kind is a huge anxiety
trigger for me. Having that awareness allows me to find
coping strategies for when confrontation does occur. When we avoid
what gives us anxiety, it only makes the anxiety worse
when those triggers appear. When we have the awareness of
those triggers and embrace them by confronting them, we all
(23:22):
of a sudden start to not have as much anxiety
about those things. We all of a sudden start to
feel worthy enough to tackle anything life throws at us.
Fourth thing, We are all worthy. Yes, let me say
it again for those in the back. We are all worthy.
Why is it that we look at someone else who
is doing something that we want to do and think
that they.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Are worthy, but we are not.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Our perception of ourselves is the only thing stopping us.
When someone is being vulnerable and sharing a difficult time
in their lives, we're trying something new, we think that
they're being brave, courageous and strong. Why can't we think
that about ourselves?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Well?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Because we are searching for our own self worth. Instead
of asking yourself what if I fail, ask yourself what
if I succeed. I am a people pleaser. I want
people to like me. However, what I think about myself
is more important to my health. Nobody knows our lives
better than ourselves. What people think about you is none
of your business. I'm still really working on that.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
One.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Live your life the way that is best for you,
and always tell yourself that you are worthy. And then
what she did was she added a link. She said,
click here for the self care journal prompts that I'm
going to start using.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
And I just thought that.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
This was a really thoughtful blog. The coolest part was
the seventh thing to me and how she was very
intentional and she put that out there. She said, Hey, God,
I want the right person to come that's going to
need this, and it seems as though she got the
right person. And it's really cool that it was the
seventh person. And I think when we start asking for
(24:57):
things like that in different signs to show us and
give us affirmation, God's going to show us. Stuff will
show up or however you want to look at it.
The universe is going to tell you I don't care
how you look at it. If you're open to receiving
stuff like that, it's really really really cool when it happens.
And that's why I think I was so excited to
(25:18):
read this blog, because yeah, the seventh thing is very
very cool, and I just love that someone took the
time to ride up for takeaways that they got from
the event, and that it was a special night for
her and her friend, and that she actually found someone
that wanted to go with her. And hey, she was
(25:38):
also willing to come alone if she didn't find anybody,
which there was multiple people that did come alone. So
if there's something out there that you want to go do,
and maybe you can't find someone to go with you,
but you know that it's going to fill up your
cup in a way, still go for it. I am
telling you so many people were there alone. Someone came
alone from Alaska, someone came alone from Canada. There was
(26:01):
others from all across the country. And that was really
really really special and encouraging to see. And we're going
to do more lives. I don't have the exact cities
or dates or times for you just yet, but we'll
be announcing them soon. But if something you want to
come to and you don't have anybody to come to,
come alone, Trust me, there's going to be others there
alone or again if there's other events. I'm not even
(26:23):
saying mine something else out there that you want to
go do again, it's going to fill up your cup.
I would just encourage you to focus on things that
fill you up, not drain you. What is that something
that you can do for yourself? And can you gather
a group of people to go or you just want
to go alone? And know that you're worth taking the
(26:44):
time to do something like that for yourself.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
You are worthy?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
And just a quick shout out to my guests for
each thing. The first thing was Leanne Ellington, which she's
going to be taking over Outweigh podcast for the next
four weeks or so. She's doing a little guest host residency,
which I think is really cool. She has a lot
to offer, she knows a lot about our brains. She
(27:10):
sent me a whole list of some of the topics
that she's going to be covering, like why your brain
thinks it is craving sugar? Is social media helping her
harming your self esteem? Why you stopped trusting yourself and
how to earn it back. Why weekend self sabotage is
a thing another idea, HM, So maybe she's going to
(27:31):
do maybe she's going to do five weeks how to
know if you are using food and exercise as a
tool or a weapon. And I love how Leanne explains
things breaks them down. So I'm so excited to have
her as a takeover guest host on Outweigh and that'll
start this Saturday, So definitely make sure you listen to
(27:54):
that episode if you think that's something that would be
beneficial to you. Outweigh is a podcast that's dedicated to
eating disorder and disordered eating recovery.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Also shout out to Kat Defauda.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
She's the co host of My fifth thing here, but
she was one of my guests at the live Ali
Fallon was another guest, and then Britney Spencer was my
musical guest, and it was just really cool hearing her
perspective on feeling worthy in the country music space. And
if you haven't listened to the live episode, well go
(28:26):
back and listen to it. It loaded up a few
weeks ago, or actually almost like it's been a month.
That's kind of crazy time. Is flying. So I appreciate
this blog. Thank you so much for putting it together, Alissa,
and I'm glad I came across it and my DM
so it's just really cool and special to see. All Right,
(29:00):
for this thing, I'm going to share some details about
Haiti right now that are very disturbing. I'll just say,
if you have kids in the car, listen to this
part later. But I encourage you, if you are an adult,
to listen to this so you can know what's going
on that you may not hear in the news. And honestly,
I'm someone I tried to avoid the news because it
(29:22):
tends to bring me down. And what I'm sharing right
now is not meant to bring you down. It's just
me wanting to inform you of a place that is
near and dear to my heart. And Haiti will always
be special to me because that's where we adopted Stevenson
and Stashira from. We adopted them over five years ago
when they came to America. Stephenson was seven, insta Share
was ten, and Stashira turned sixteen this year. It's crazy,
(29:47):
so I've had them almost five and a half years
or so. Stevenson's going to be thirteen this summer, and
I can't imagine what would be like for them if
they're in Haiti right now, which I did get an
email from the Orphanage yesterday and they are doing well.
But they're in the heart of Porter of Prince and
there are nannies that work there, in school teachers that
(30:07):
work there that are in and out of port of prints.
They're not always behind the secure gate with the security.
I just keep thinking of a lot of our friends there,
people we know, people that I don't know, just innocent
lives being so impacted by such evil. And that's what
my friend Missy Wilson texted me this morning. We were
(30:29):
just texting back and forth about a few things, and
I was asking her how she was doing, and she said, honestly,
I'm struggling. I'm going to have Mike send you something
that we're sending out, but Haiti has crossed a line
to a level of evil that she said she couldn't
even comprehend. And then the next text message I got
was from her husband, Mike. Now, Mike and Missy are
the founders of My Life Speaks, which we've done a
(30:52):
lot of work with through ESPOI and four things items
at the live podcast show and the pop up shop.
It was all going to support my Life Speaks. And
so it's a place that yeh Spa, the shop Forward,
we've worked with multiple times. They're amazing people, but they
have left Haiti. It's no longer safe for them to
(31:14):
be there, and they haven't been there in quite some time.
And they found it an entire village. They were a
part of building it with other Haitians and they've had
to leave because it's not safe. And so I opened
up my text from Mike and it says this, Hey, Amie,
I don't ask you to use your platform too often,
but Haiti is out of hand and we must do something.
(31:34):
On Sunday, one gang slaughtered the remaining people of a village,
including women and children. Videos show a man being forced
to watch his family beheaded and then he was shot.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
The evil is real.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Another gang, in part of Porta Prince went through a
village and killed anyone that was remaining. They live streamed. Okay,
this part, even though I've told you your kids shouldn't listen.
I don't even want to rea that.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Out loud to you. It's terrible.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Okay, moving on, on Monday, a group of Haitians attacked
a police transport vehicle and pulled out thirteen gang members
and attacked them. They beat them, stoned them, and burned them.
In essence, the population has chosen to fight back with
what's available. We are partnering with anyone we can to
get the word out and asking people to help spread
(32:23):
it as well. The theme is no more will you
share this below? And so here's what he asked me
to share, and it's actually a carousel that was put
up on their Instagram, which is at my life Speaks.
The first slide says no more hashtag pray for Haiti,
and I do share this specifically for that well, to
get the word out because it's not something that is
(32:45):
necessarily covered. And then also to you can keep Haiti
in your prayers. Second slide, and then I'll just continue reading.
I'm not gonna tell you every time I switched slides,
but here's what they put up. As a ministry, we
try to keep you as informed as necessary without overwhelming
you with the increasingly volatile and life threatening situations Haitians
(33:10):
are facing daily. As a whole, we try to focus
more on all the good that is happening and all
that God continues to do in Haiti through ministry. But
today Haiti is at a critical breaking point. We're joining
forces with our friends at the Organization Mission of Hope
in wanting to have a raw conversation about what's been
taking place in Haiti. In short, it's devastating and dark.
(33:32):
Our Haitian brothers and sisters have been relentless in their
hope and resolve during these trying times. However, even our
Haitian friends are now feeling hopeless. The silence is deafening.
We can and we must do something. A democratically elected
president was assassinated, murdered, Silence villages, thousands of people shot at, kidnapped,
(33:56):
and forced to abandon the only place they have known
as home. Sils, women, rape, silence, hunger pangs, starvation, and
children dying.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Silence.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Young Men forgotten and forsaken by past generations have been
given guns, not education.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Silence.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Businesses in goos and churches forced to close. Silence, Families
fleeing to neighboring countries, not because they want to, but
because they have lost hope.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Silence.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Husbands forced to watch while wives are executed by their captors.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Silence.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
The first country in the world to free itself from
slavery is now enslaved once again to the silence from
the outside world, as gangs mercilessly take over entire villages.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
No more.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
We must give a voice to the eleven million people
living in Haiti who feel like their voice is not heard,
seven million who do not know where their next meal
will come from. We must speak up for the hundreds
of thousands of children being blocked from going.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
To school each day.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
We must say no more to women being raped, villages
being burned, and children being murdered. Haiti needs our prayers,
our help, and our voices to stop the silence. There
is a path forward, a path for Haiti to be freed.
Today we must raise our voices and say no more.
We must act on behalf of the people of Haiti.
It's up to the governments in Goo's, businesses, churches, you
(35:28):
and I to raise our voices and act for the
people of Haiti. Act now, Contact your congressmen or woman
and ask for intervention for the people of Haiti. Repost
this pray. Together our voices will be used to speak
up for our neighbors and friends in Haiti. So thank
you to My Life Speaks for putting this up and
(35:50):
for reaching out. I'm glad Mike sent it to me
so that I could add it into today's episode. And
thanks to Mission Hope for creating an initiative. And I
know that Haiti may not mean as much to you
as it does to me, but they're the most precious
(36:13):
people and that's the thing. They're people, And there's still
our neighbors. I don't think that there's borders when it
comes to our neighbors. And I know that we are
focused on a lot of efforts here in our own communities,
in our own cities, keeping our own children safe and
doing all that we can do here with the.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Devastation that goes on.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
It seems like every time you turn on the news,
but again, the stuff in Haiti isn't really reported on.
So if there's a way that you could join in
on this or you feel called to, or you can
tell some of your friends about it as well, that
would be amazing. And then, if anything, if Haiti just
pops into your head anytime it does, just saying prayer
(37:00):
for the people there and the things that they're having
to encounter. Thank you, th
Cats up little food for yourself life.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Oh it's pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, it's pretty beautiful, beautiful that for a little more,
said he You're kicking with four with Amy Brown, Happy Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Four Things Amy here and today is og style for
very different things. We're talking everything from procrastination and a
technique that you can try out that's going to help
you with that ADHD and whether or not you maybe
need to go get tested. A blog post that was
written by one of you that is a recap of
(00:57):
the Four Things Live.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
But it's more than that, yea.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It is actually about something really cool that God orchestrated
in this listener's life. And I love that she was
paying attention to this detail because it's very very neat
how a prayer was answered and it unfolded all because
of the Live. And then I also have an update
from Haiti. It's heartbreaking. It's hard to hear and even
(01:24):
give a little disclaimer if you've got kids in the
car or near you when you're listening to this. I
went ahead and I made it the fourth Thing for
a reason, so it's at the end, so if you
can listen to it, though I would encourage you to.
It's not the fourth things, so that you'll just be like, Okay,
I don't really need to listen to that. My hope
is that you will, but you'll just be able to
(01:45):
make sure you're in the right place at the right time,
surrounded by the right people, and not a bunch of
little people when you're listening to it, because it's heavy stuff.
All right, With all that said, we'll get into the episode.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Here you go.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
First. Yeah, okay, we're going to talk about the Pomodoro method,
which I hope I'm saying that correctly, but pomodoro is
Italian for tomato, but it really has nothing to do
with tomatoes. It has to do with procrastination, which is
something that I personally have dealt with for much of
(02:20):
my life and it still pops up from time to time.
But I am working incredibly hard on not procrastinating.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
There's a Wayne Dyer.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Quote that I really like about procrastination, and it's procrastination
is the art of keeping up with yesterday and avoiding today.
And I don't want to live that way. I don't
want to keep up with yesterday and avoid today. I
want to be in today. I don't want to constantly
be chasing all these things that I have to do.
Procrastination taught me how to do thirty minutes of work
in eight hours, and eight hours of work in thirty minutes, which, gosh,
(02:53):
isn't that the truth? That's how I approach studying In college,
I crammed for everything. I just think how much better
I could have done if I would have really put
in the effort and not put things off, which I'm
sure you've heard, never put off until tomorrow. What you
can do well the day after tomorrow, boom. But if
you've been procrastinating a task, or you've got something you
(03:16):
need to do at work, around the house, whatever it is,
I want you to try out the Pomodoro technique. Now,
this guy, Francisco Cirillo, I think that's how you say
his last name. He was struggling to focus in college.
It was like the late eighties, and he really couldn't
study complete assignments. So, feeling overwhelmed, he asked himself to
(03:37):
just commit to ten minutes of focused study time. Now
he's encouraged by this whole challenge and decided, Okay, I
need a legit timer. So we found a tomato shaped
kitchen timer and again tomato and Italian is pomodoro, and
that is how the Pomodoro technique was born.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Now, he went on.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
To write a whole book about the method, but I'm
going to break it down for you simply. Basically, you
get a to do list and a timer does not
have to be a tomato. You set your timer for
twenty five minutes, and you focus on a single task
until the timer goes off. Now, when the timer goes off,
you mark off one of the Pomodoro's like a check
(04:15):
you did it, and record what you completed. I feel
like this is an important step because you can see
what you've accomplished and you're keeping track of things. Then
after you do that, you get to take a five
minute break, and then after four pomodoros you get to
take a longer break, maybe fifteen thirty minutes if you
want to.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
But the point is.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You want to knock out four pomodoros in a row.
But again, you get those five minute breaks in between
and the twenty five minute work sprints. They're the core
of the method.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But here's the deal.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Once a Pomodoro is set, that bell has to ring,
the timer has to go off. The pomodoro is an
invisible unit of time and it cannot be broken, so
you also have to hold yourself accountable. You can't check
in coming emails, team chats, text messages, any ideas, tasks
(05:08):
or requests that come up should be take a note
of to circle back to later. There's task managers that
can help keep you on task. You might have to
put your computer or your phone on do not disturb
so you're not distracted by other things that are coming in.
Because again, you want to focus on this specific thing
(05:29):
for this specific pomodoro. So there you go. See if
that is something that will help you. I feel like
timers help a lot. I've talked about how when I've
got to pick up my house and I keep putting
it off and I'm dreading it and I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I set a timer.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It works for me as a forty two year old adult,
and it works for my kids. Kids love timers too, like, hey,
let's see how much work we can done in ten minutes.
And this is sort of what you're doing to yourself is, hey,
let's see how much I can get done in this
twenty five minute window, and then go take a little
five minute break. But the thing is, after your five
minute break is up, you got to go back and
(06:06):
do your next twenty five minutes until you've completed four.
And I feel like this guy knows what he's talking about,
and he came up with a whole method about it.
So something that you can try out on any little
thing that you might be procrastinating or any big thing.
I'll wrap this thing up with another quote. This one's
from Rita Emmett and she created Emmett's Law in her
(06:28):
book called The Procrastinator's Handbook, Mastering the Art of Doing
It Now. And the quote is the dread of doing
a task uses up more time and energy than doing
the task itself.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And that is so true.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I mean the amount of energy that I have put
in trying to avoid a task, I mean, it's too.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Much to add up.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And you know, if you think about the roots of procrastinating,
I feel like for some it has to do with perfectionism.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It's not necessarily me.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I feel like I can speak for my sister on
this because she said that this is her a ton
of times, but she will put things off because she
wants it to be done perfectly. And she can't do
it that way, then she just doesn't want to do
it at all. I really feel like for me, I'm
just unorganized at times and I don't really have a
good handle on my time, my resources, how to execute,
(07:21):
so then I put it off. And I have convinced
myself that I am better under pressure and I perform
better when I have a small amount of time, but
really I'm stressed out. So what I have done has
gotten more organized as well, and that has helped me
with my procrastination. So if you're a procrastinator and you
want to keep living that way while you do, you
(07:41):
and if you're wanting to work on it, well, maybe
try out the Pomodoro technique. So in the last thing,
we were talking about procrastination, and I do feel like
some of my procrastination, you know, all of it comes
from my eighty HD, and I am open to talking
(08:03):
about that. It's something that I've been tested for twice
once in college and then actually like a month or
so ago, I went and got retested and sure enough, yep,
still have it. And I think it's also something to
be misdiagnosed. I've been talking to friends about that recently
(08:23):
now that we're in our forties, and then you know,
as we're trying to figure ourselves out and see what's
going on with us and why we act the way
that we do, and we're older, so we have the
resources to maybe ask the questions, make the appointments, dig
a little deeper, and figure out what's going on. And
one of my friends recently was completely misdiagnosed, like for
a long time, she was told that she had this
(08:44):
this is going on, and then she realized very recently
that was ADHD. And I'll just go ahead and say
here and now, which everybody listening knows, I'm not a
medical professional, but let's just say you're brand new to
the podcast.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
I'll just clarify that I am.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Not and I am not trying to give any advice
in any way, shape or form. I'm just trying to
encourage you to get tested if you are curious, because
I get emails from people sometimes too asking what medication
I'm on, what medications I've tried, what works, what doesn't work,
And I don't know if in the past, if I've
(09:19):
said specifically what I'm taking, what I've done, I know
I have had to go through a lot of different
things because some of the stuff that works for some friends,
like Kat, for example, she's a licensed therapist that's a
co host of me on the fifth thing. For a
long time she was on this particular medication, and she
talks about ADHD. So I'm not talking about her without
(09:40):
her permission by any means, or behind her back, or
saying anything that she hasn't said. But I was like, oh,
I can't take that. I've tried that before and it
does not work on me because all of our bodies
are different. So when I get emails about ADHD and
people asking me questions, I'm just very hesitant.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I try to share as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
When it comes to your body and your brain and
the science behind you and what's going to help you
and maybe not help you, that is for you to
figure out. But what I can share, and this is
from the DSM five, which is something Kat talks about often.
ADHD and women primarily means a greater likelihood for the
(10:26):
following Failing to give close attention to details or making
careless mistakes and activities, troubleholding attention on tasks, not following
through on instructions, and failing to finish duties, trouble organizing
tasks and activities, getting easily distracted, forgetfulness and daily activities,
internalizing symptoms including mood and anxiety. So if those are
(10:48):
some things that pop up for you, then it's time
to get curious and see what's going on. Some other
reasons to get diagnosed. And like this is just me
speaking from my own personal experience, but if you're at
work and you're struggling with organizing and planning and it's
difficult for you to start in complete projects, and I'm
not just talking about procrastination, it's just really difficult, you
(11:09):
might want to look into getting a test done, getting diagnosed.
In relationships, if you're constantly interrupting people, that is me.
I've had to work on that difficulty waiting for your
turn to speak, definitely me. And then for me on
the mental health side of things, just being unable to
stay still and really be in the moment and enjoy
(11:33):
the moment and be present with your friends, your family,
your people. My brain's always a lot of different places
and I'm fidgeting constantly. If that's something that is happening
to you, you may want to look into it a
little bit further. But also my point in sharing this
is if you're not hearing back from me on email,
(11:56):
or I'm not giving you the answer that you asked
for specifically or that you wanted, is just because I
don't really feel like it's my.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Place at all.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
But I do want to encourage you to get curious.
I think that's the best thing we can do for
ourselves when we have anything going on with our bodies anything,
is to get curious and don't procrastinate that if there's
a doctor's appointment you need to make, or something that
needs to be looked at. And we could be we're
talking ADHD here now, but this could be, you know,
(12:27):
a breast exam. It could be that you haven't been
to your OBGYN in years. I'm someone that I used
to be that way. I would go years without going
to the gynecologists. And I have healthcare, I have insurance.
There's no reason why I should be putting that off.
I understand if you don't have access to that and
it's expensive, I get it. But if there's something going
(12:47):
on and you need to see someone, this is not
something you know to put off. Whatever it is that's
going on for you, that's my encouragement. It's not really
exactly what I've planned on talking about, but for whatever reason,
I like it needs to be said that we need
to be curious and we need to be proactive. That's
why I went and got a colonoscopy a couple of
(13:08):
months ago, is because my mom had anal cancer and
I want to be proactive. I want to get ahead
of it. I want to know. And my obgian was
telling me that I was going to have to go
every year, but then when I got it done, the
I guess she's a gastroontologist.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
I don't know her exact title, but whoever did my colonoscopy.
When she met with me afterwards, she told me that
she would like to see me every three years, but
if I have some symptoms pop up to book an
appointment asap and get another colonosophy. It doesn't matter how
much time has passed. Maybe if it's six months from now,
I can go in and get another one, and or
(13:45):
she would encourage me to. And that's something that I
would invest in. I mean, even though I have an
insurance like the Kolonosky, even paying for another one, I
would have to invest in that. But that's that's my health.
That's me wanting to take care of my body, and
not from a place of pure fear, but just wanting
to know what's going on with me and how I
can best care for myself and how I can show
(14:07):
up for myself because I want to show up for others,
like my kids. I want to be around. And this
went a little bit of a different direction than ADHD.
But I often think of thee Ray's wife Ray from
the Bobby Bone Show, Laura. She had breast cancer at
a very young age and she just hit five years remission,
(14:29):
which is amazing. You hit that five year mark and
it is good. That was always the goal for my
mom to make it to the five year mark. If
you make it to the five year mark, you'll be good.
My mom did not. There were times where yes she
was in remission, but she never made it to the
five year mark. And I think of mammograms, that's something
that we often put off.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
If you can book one.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Go if you're of age and it's time for you
to start doing it. But the self exams in the shower.
If you don't know how to do it, go to YouTube,
google it, get to know your body, and that's something
she found something that didn't feel right.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Advocate for yourself.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I had another friend on the podcast talking about her
breast cancer journey, Leslie Simon, and there was a time
where I'm pretty sure she was in remission and then
it was returning and she was told that she was
in the clear, and then something didn't feel right, so
she booked another appointment, got a second opinion, and sure enough,
she's really glad, and I'm really glad that she listened
(15:29):
to herself and she advocated for herself and she went
and got another appointment. So apparently this little encouragement needed
to be said. For some reason, it needed to be given.
And maybe it's even for myself, because honestly, I'm not
the best at doing the self exams, like the breast
exams in the shower, and when I say it out
(15:50):
loud to you, I'm picturing like, Okay, I just need
to do it at least, you know, come on, I
could do it once a week when I'm in the shower,
just to you know, get to know myself that way.
The more you know yourself, then the more likely you
are to quickly realize when something is off. If you're
not checking it that often, then it's harder to tell, like, well,
has that been there?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I don't really know.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
But the more familiar we are with our bodies, the better.
The more familiar we are with our behavior, all the
different things, it's time to get curious about a lot
of it. And I'm speaking to myself. So maybe this
little pep talk was for me, and you know, hopefully
for you too, And then hopefully you can find someone
(16:33):
that has a.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Medical license that you can talk to.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Because I appreciate the emails for sure, but when I
start to share specifically what I do for myself, I
would hate to steer you in the wrong direction by
sharing those details or giving you bad advice or guidance.
But I don't see any harm in encouraging you to
pay attention to your body, know your body, be proactive,
(16:56):
don't put things off. I mean that stuff I can
say confidently, and I do not need a medical degree
to say that.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Here we are third, all right for this thing.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I am reading a blog post that was put up
by one of you, a listener named Alissa Christine, who
was at one of the live podcast shows that I
did in Nashville and I happen to see on Instagram
that she tagged me in a post that she put
up sharing her blog about the day, and she included
a quote in the blog. I went to it, read it,
(17:36):
printed it out, and I'm going to read it to
you now. It's Louise Hey quote. I am worthy of
the best things in life, and I now lovingly allow
myself to accept it. And now here's what Alissa shared,
which I think is very encouraging and cool. She said
a few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to attend
(17:57):
a live podcast taping of Four Things with Amy Brown.
For those of you who don't know, I'm a big
Bobby Bone Show fan, and Amy's the co host and
she's created her own podcast. When I found out she
was coming to Nashville, I knew I had to go.
I texted my best friend, who was also a huge man,
and we decided to get tickets. Well, my friend texted
me and said she could no longer go. Two nights
(18:20):
before the show, she told me that she was unable
to come due to a death in the family. We
were both disappointed. However, something really cool came from it.
God's orchestration. After my friend's phone call, I started to
wonder who would go with me. She still paid for
her ticket and just wanted to bring joy and bless
someone with the opportunity to go since she couldn't. She's
amazing like that. I knew I would probably have a
(18:42):
hard time finding someone to go with me because not
many of my friends know who Amy is aside from
me talking about her. At that moment, I prayed that
God would send me the perfect person to go with me.
I prayed that whoever went with me would be blessed
and that whatever was said at the taping would be
what they needed to hear. I reached out to friend
after friend. They all had prior commitments and were not
(19:04):
able to attend. I was just about to give up
and just go by myself until I started scrolling Facebook.
One of my friend's names jumped off the screen at me.
I absolutely adore this friend and was frustrated with myself
for not thinking of her sooner. Even though I knew
she would love it, I was hesitant to ask her
to come with me because I knew that she had
(19:25):
a lot going on and was just as busy as
I was most weekends. Honestly, I was also dreading another letdown,
but something told me that I needed to text her.
I went ahead and texted her, and she said that
she'd loved to go, she just had to double check
a few things. Luckily, she was able to go. We
had the absolute best time and had the best conversations.
(19:45):
We both shared a lot, and the whole day was
healing for both of us. She told me that it
was exactly what she needed to hear and that she
was so thankful that she got to come.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Now, let me tell you the coolest part of it all.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Remember how I said that I had prayed for God
to send the perfect person to go. Well, a few
days later it was put on my heart to count
just how many people I had asked to come with me.
This friend was the seventh friend that I asked. Why
is this important? Well, in the Bible, seven is the
number of perfection and completion. God literally sent me the
(20:19):
perfect person for the event. God truly orchestrated the whole thing,
and I believe with all my heart that she was
the seventh person I reached out to because of my prayer.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
The event was absolutely incredible. The theme was you are worthy.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I don't want to give too much of it away
because I want you to go listen to the whole
thing for yourself. So in four Things with Amy Brown's style,
I will write out the four main things that I
took away from being there. First thing, our brains are reprogrammable.
This is called neuroplasticity. The way it was described is
(20:54):
like a cornfield. If we walk the same path through
a cornfield every day of event eventually we're going to
be able to see the path we made. However, say
we want to change our path. Well day one of
walking a new path, we will barely be able to
see where the corn laid down. Then as days pass,
the new path will become more apparent and the old
(21:15):
path will grow back up. Our self worth works the
same way. For one reason or another, we often go
through life thinking we are not worthy. We are afraid
to try new things or even stop doing the things
we love because we don't feel worthy enough. If we
want to feel worthy, which we all are, we have
to tell ourselves that we are every day. We cannot
(21:37):
compare ourselves to those around us. Comparison is the thief
of joy. Practicing having self worth is just like walking
a new path in the Cornfield. We have to practice
it every day until our old negative self thoughts are
gone well for the most part, anyways. Second thing, One
way we can practice having self worth is through the
(21:59):
power of righting. Have you ever started to retell a
story about a time that you were mad or upset
about something, and then halfway through you realized how silly
it was and that you weren't even really that matter
upset in the first place. Well, writing can do that
same thing for us. It can help us realize that
the situation that we're in maybe isn't that big of
a deal, or the thoughts that we're having or normal,
(22:21):
or sometimes it might help us realize how dangerous they are.
Through writing, we can also go back and see how
God has worked in our lives and how we have
grown as a person. There are several prompts out there
that can help us gain the self worth we deserve
to have.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Writing is very therapeutic.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
It's one of the reasons I started this blog, even
though there are already millions of blogs out there. Third thing,
awareness awareness is powerful. For example, being aware of what
triggers are anxieties can help us handle our anxiety by
avoiding those triggers, or if those triggers are unavoidable, we
can at least mentally prepare ourselves for when they occur.
(23:00):
For example, confrontation of any kind is a huge anxiety
trigger for me. Having that awareness allows me to find
coping strategies for when confrontation does occur. When we avoid
what gives us anxiety, it only makes the anxiety worse
when those triggers appear. When we have the awareness of
those triggers and embrace them by confronting them, we all
(23:22):
of a sudden start to not have as much anxiety
about those things. We all of a sudden start to
feel worthy enough to tackle anything life throws at us.
Fourth thing, We are all worthy. Yes, let me say
it again for those in the back. We are all worthy.
Why is it that we look at someone else who
is doing something that we want to do and think
that they.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Are worthy, but we are not.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Our perception of ourselves is the only thing stopping us.
When someone is being vulnerable and sharing a difficult time
in their lives, we're trying something new, we think that
they're being brave, courageous and strong. Why can't we think
that about ourselves?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Well?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Because we are searching for our own self worth. Instead
of asking yourself what if I fail, ask yourself what
if I succeed. I am a people pleaser. I want
people to like me. However, what I think about myself
is more important to my health. Nobody knows our lives
better than ourselves. What people think about you is none
of your business. I'm still really working on that.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
One.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Live your life the way that is best for you,
and always tell yourself that you are worthy. And then
what she did was she added a link. She said,
click here for the self care journal prompts that I'm
going to start using.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
And I just thought that.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
This was a really thoughtful blog. The coolest part was
the seventh thing to me and how she was very
intentional and she put that out there. She said, Hey, God,
I want the right person to come that's going to
need this, and it seems as though she got the
right person. And it's really cool that it was the
seventh person. And I think when we start asking for
(24:57):
things like that in different signs to show us and
give us affirmation, God's going to show us. Stuff will
show up or however you want to look at it.
The universe is going to tell you I don't care
how you look at it. If you're open to receiving
stuff like that, it's really really really cool when it happens.
And that's why I think I was so excited to
(25:18):
read this blog, because yeah, the seventh thing is very
very cool, and I just love that someone took the
time to ride up for takeaways that they got from
the event, and that it was a special night for
her and her friend, and that she actually found someone
that wanted to go with her. And hey, she was
(25:38):
also willing to come alone if she didn't find anybody,
which there was multiple people that did come alone. So
if there's something out there that you want to go do,
and maybe you can't find someone to go with you,
but you know that it's going to fill up your
cup in a way, still go for it. I am
telling you so many people were there alone. Someone came
alone from Alaska, someone came alone from Canada. There was
(26:01):
others from all across the country. And that was really
really really special and encouraging to see. And we're going
to do more lives. I don't have the exact cities
or dates or times for you just yet, but we'll
be announcing them soon. But if something you want to
come to and you don't have anybody to come to,
come alone, Trust me, there's going to be others there
alone or again if there's other events. I'm not even
(26:23):
saying mine something else out there that you want to
go do again, it's going to fill up your cup.
I would just encourage you to focus on things that
fill you up, not drain you. What is that something
that you can do for yourself? And can you gather
a group of people to go or you just want
to go alone? And know that you're worth taking the
(26:44):
time to do something like that for yourself.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
You are worthy?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
And just a quick shout out to my guests for
each thing. The first thing was Leanne Ellington, which she's
going to be taking over Outweigh podcast for the next
four weeks or so. She's doing a little guest host residency,
which I think is really cool. She has a lot
to offer, she knows a lot about our brains. She
(27:10):
sent me a whole list of some of the topics
that she's going to be covering, like why your brain
thinks it is craving sugar? Is social media helping her
harming your self esteem? Why you stopped trusting yourself and
how to earn it back. Why weekend self sabotage is
a thing another idea, HM, So maybe she's going to
(27:31):
do maybe she's going to do five weeks how to
know if you are using food and exercise as a
tool or a weapon. And I love how Leanne explains
things breaks them down. So I'm so excited to have
her as a takeover guest host on Outweigh and that'll
start this Saturday, So definitely make sure you listen to
(27:54):
that episode if you think that's something that would be
beneficial to you. Outweigh is a podcast that's dedicated to
eating disorder and disordered eating recovery.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Also shout out to Kat Defauda.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
She's the co host of My fifth thing here, but
she was one of my guests at the live Ali
Fallon was another guest, and then Britney Spencer was my
musical guest, and it was just really cool hearing her
perspective on feeling worthy in the country music space. And
if you haven't listened to the live episode, well go
(28:26):
back and listen to it. It loaded up a few
weeks ago, or actually almost like it's been a month.
That's kind of crazy time. Is flying. So I appreciate
this blog. Thank you so much for putting it together, Alissa,
and I'm glad I came across it and my DM
so it's just really cool and special to see. All Right,
(29:00):
for this thing, I'm going to share some details about
Haiti right now that are very disturbing. I'll just say,
if you have kids in the car, listen to this
part later. But I encourage you, if you are an adult,
to listen to this so you can know what's going
on that you may not hear in the news. And honestly,
I'm someone I tried to avoid the news because it
(29:22):
tends to bring me down. And what I'm sharing right
now is not meant to bring you down. It's just
me wanting to inform you of a place that is
near and dear to my heart. And Haiti will always
be special to me because that's where we adopted Stevenson
and Stashira from. We adopted them over five years ago
when they came to America. Stephenson was seven, insta Share
was ten, and Stashira turned sixteen this year. It's crazy,
(29:47):
so I've had them almost five and a half years
or so. Stevenson's going to be thirteen this summer, and
I can't imagine what would be like for them if
they're in Haiti right now, which I did get an
email from the Orphanage yesterday and they are doing well.
But they're in the heart of Porter of Prince and
there are nannies that work there, in school teachers that
(30:07):
work there that are in and out of port of prints.
They're not always behind the secure gate with the security.
I just keep thinking of a lot of our friends there,
people we know, people that I don't know, just innocent
lives being so impacted by such evil. And that's what
my friend Missy Wilson texted me this morning. We were
(30:29):
just texting back and forth about a few things, and
I was asking her how she was doing, and she said, honestly,
I'm struggling. I'm going to have Mike send you something
that we're sending out, but Haiti has crossed a line
to a level of evil that she said she couldn't
even comprehend. And then the next text message I got
was from her husband, Mike. Now, Mike and Missy are
the founders of My Life Speaks, which we've done a
(30:52):
lot of work with through ESPOI and four things items
at the live podcast show and the pop up shop.
It was all going to support my Life Speaks. And
so it's a place that yeh Spa, the shop Forward,
we've worked with multiple times. They're amazing people, but they
have left Haiti. It's no longer safe for them to
(31:14):
be there, and they haven't been there in quite some time.
And they found it an entire village. They were a
part of building it with other Haitians and they've had
to leave because it's not safe. And so I opened
up my text from Mike and it says this, Hey, Amie,
I don't ask you to use your platform too often,
but Haiti is out of hand and we must do something.
(31:34):
On Sunday, one gang slaughtered the remaining people of a village,
including women and children. Videos show a man being forced
to watch his family beheaded and then he was shot.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
The evil is real.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Another gang, in part of Porta Prince went through a
village and killed anyone that was remaining. They live streamed. Okay,
this part, even though I've told you your kids shouldn't listen.
I don't even want to rea that.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Out loud to you. It's terrible.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Okay, moving on, on Monday, a group of Haitians attacked
a police transport vehicle and pulled out thirteen gang members
and attacked them. They beat them, stoned them, and burned them.
In essence, the population has chosen to fight back with
what's available. We are partnering with anyone we can to
get the word out and asking people to help spread
(32:23):
it as well. The theme is no more will you
share this below? And so here's what he asked me
to share, and it's actually a carousel that was put
up on their Instagram, which is at my life Speaks.
The first slide says no more hashtag pray for Haiti,
and I do share this specifically for that well, to
get the word out because it's not something that is
(32:45):
necessarily covered. And then also to you can keep Haiti
in your prayers. Second slide, and then I'll just continue reading.
I'm not gonna tell you every time I switched slides,
but here's what they put up. As a ministry, we
try to keep you as informed as necessary without overwhelming
you with the increasingly volatile and life threatening situations Haitians
(33:10):
are facing daily. As a whole, we try to focus
more on all the good that is happening and all
that God continues to do in Haiti through ministry. But
today Haiti is at a critical breaking point. We're joining
forces with our friends at the Organization Mission of Hope
in wanting to have a raw conversation about what's been
taking place in Haiti. In short, it's devastating and dark.
(33:32):
Our Haitian brothers and sisters have been relentless in their
hope and resolve during these trying times. However, even our
Haitian friends are now feeling hopeless. The silence is deafening.
We can and we must do something. A democratically elected
president was assassinated, murdered, Silence villages, thousands of people shot at, kidnapped,
(33:56):
and forced to abandon the only place they have known
as home. Sils, women, rape, silence, hunger pangs, starvation, and
children dying.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Silence.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Young Men forgotten and forsaken by past generations have been
given guns, not education.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Silence.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Businesses in goos and churches forced to close. Silence, Families
fleeing to neighboring countries, not because they want to, but
because they have lost hope.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Silence.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Husbands forced to watch while wives are executed by their captors.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Silence.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
The first country in the world to free itself from
slavery is now enslaved once again to the silence from
the outside world, as gangs mercilessly take over entire villages.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
No more.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
We must give a voice to the eleven million people
living in Haiti who feel like their voice is not heard,
seven million who do not know where their next meal
will come from. We must speak up for the hundreds
of thousands of children being blocked from going.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
To school each day.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
We must say no more to women being raped, villages
being burned, and children being murdered. Haiti needs our prayers,
our help, and our voices to stop the silence. There
is a path forward, a path for Haiti to be freed.
Today we must raise our voices and say no more.
We must act on behalf of the people of Haiti.
It's up to the governments in Goo's, businesses, churches, you
(35:28):
and I to raise our voices and act for the
people of Haiti. Act now, Contact your congressmen or woman
and ask for intervention for the people of Haiti. Repost
this pray. Together our voices will be used to speak
up for our neighbors and friends in Haiti. So thank
you to My Life Speaks for putting this up and
(35:50):
for reaching out. I'm glad Mike sent it to me
so that I could add it into today's episode. And
thanks to Mission Hope for creating an initiative. And I
know that Haiti may not mean as much to you
as it does to me, but they're the most precious
(36:13):
people and that's the thing. They're people, And there's still
our neighbors. I don't think that there's borders when it
comes to our neighbors. And I know that we are
focused on a lot of efforts here in our own communities,
in our own cities, keeping our own children safe and
doing all that we can do here with the.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Devastation that goes on.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
It seems like every time you turn on the news,
but again, the stuff in Haiti isn't really reported on.
So if there's a way that you could join in
on this or you feel called to, or you can
tell some of your friends about it as well, that
would be amazing. And then, if anything, if Haiti just
pops into your head anytime it does, just saying prayer
(37:00):
for the people there and the things that they're having
to encounter. Thank you, th
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
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Amy Brown
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