Episode 120: Ideas To Slow Time & Embrace Life (Solo Episode)
In this solo episode I talk about:
My personal experience with the emotions coming up and how fast life feels
How you can start to build appreciative moments of self awareness and gratitude throughout your day
Acknowledging what feels good in your life right now and what doesn't feel good
The challenges of figuring out what your preferences in life are & ways to discover what truly makes you happy
The power of intentionally looking for the good in life
Resources I mention in this episode…
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TRANSCRIPTION Episode 120: Ideas To Slow Time & Embrace Life (Solo Episode)
Katelyn:
Hi, welcome back to the show. Welcome. If this is your first time, I'm so glad that you're here, I'm your host, Katelyn Parsons, I'm a certified intuitive eating, and body image coach, I help ambitious women and company cultures feel more comfortable in their skin, have a better relationship with food, live life more confidently, and with more authenticity, I love what I get to do. And I love this community that we have on the podcast. And I am just so lit up right now and want to talk about something that has been on my mind for a while now. And I have a hunch that it might be on yours too, because I have also heard this topic brought up in conversations that I've had with friends and family and on TV, and on other podcasts. And I just think there's something here. And we are going to get into time, slowing time and how to slow time. And if that's even possible, and I will be upfront, I don't have the answer. I don't know if it is possible or not all I can offer or what I can offer, rather, because I think this is really, really valuable and medicine that I have to take for myself proactively. But what I can offer is some ideas on how to appreciate time and how to appreciate life more intentionally.
Because here's the deal, I certainly feel like we are in a moment right now. And I can only speak for myself. But I'm in a moment right now. Whereas we're recording this, it's June of 2022. And honestly even just saying that out loud to you feels strange, because I remember saying things like that back in June of 2020 on this podcast. Just exclamations like, oh my gosh, I can't believe we're in June already. And it's already two years later. And so I know that there will be more moments like this, two years from now and four years from now, 24 years from now. And I want to just acknowledge that and appreciate that. And I also want to be honest, it's scary to me sometimes how fast life is going by. And it's exciting. And it brings up a lot of different emotions that in the past I would have tried to stuffed down or pushed to the side or numb out to. And sometimes I still want to, sometimes I still do. But most of the time I just let them be just let them come up, notice where my thoughts are. And let the emotions lay wherever they need to in my life around thinking about time, and just what it's looking like right now in life. So as it relates to the idea of slowing time and embracing life. And really just appreciating life in general and time. This really is rooted in mindfulness. And before you shut off this podcast episode, we're not just ending here, I have some tangible ideas that I want to offer you around this. And the reason why I want to lead with mindfulness is because for so many of us and I include myself in this, it's so easy to get caught up in the rhythm of life and just the way we do life and our routines that we get into you know, I wake up at almost the same hour of the night every night and go to the bathroom. I generally wake up around the same time every morning and kind of go through a very similar routine. And those are just two examples of many different patterns that I do pretty consistently throughout my life. And when I'm not pausing and really just soaking in those moments, those monotonous moments that feel a little boring sometimes then it does feel like time is just escaping me or that it is moving quicker than normal. And when I noticed myself just pausing to really just appreciate what I'm doing at that moment. It Feels better in general, I don't know if it actually slows time. But it definitely feels like it elongates the moment because I'm with it. And I'm not letting it happen to me. I'm collaborating with it in a way, because I'm bringing in my awareness and my attention to that.
So one idea that I want to offer you around this is, how can you start to build this into your day, just these little, still appreciative moments of self awareness and gratitude throughout your day. And there might be things that come easier to you around this, there might be moments in the day that seem a little bit more effortless. But I really want to invite you to ask yourself a question. And just to keep this at the top of your mind over this next week, where can you just pause and appreciate and just notice even a simple task that you might be doing every single day like checking your emails, or taking the dog out, or hopping in the shower, how can you just bring in some more of your sensory skills, and sit with that moment. So a shower is a great example of that, that feeling that you have when you feel the water hitting your skin at first, when you step in, the way that you see the fog coming up over the shower curtain perhaps, or the smell that you might experience of the soap, how you might feel your body when you're singing in the shower, if you do, or whatever you might hear. But just all of those sensory experiences, this is a practice that can be applied to so many things in life, pretty much everything in life. But that's a very specific example. So that's the first thought that I want to offer you where is there an opportunity to slow down and just start appreciating and noticing, and bringing in some of the sensory skills into those little moments of your life, I also have a few things that have really helped me that I've created in my life, intentionally that I want to offer to you.
So one thing is really just acknowledging what feels good in your life right now, and what doesn't feel good, your preferences. And if you are a people pleaser, by any stretch of the imagination, if you are recovering people pleaser, like myself. It can be really challenging to figure out what your preferences are. And I know this was for me. And I also never really thought that it was a challenge at the same time until I did some work around this. But if you're used to just kind of going with the flow of everyday life or agreeing with everybody else, or letting other people make decisions, whether it's where you want to go for dinner, or what trip you're going to go on, or engagements at work that you're going to participate in and whatnot, that can be really challenging to figure out what you actually like and what you don't like as it relates to intuitive eating practices. This is really important because if we think about it, this was true for me too. So much of my relationship with food was just outsourced to what I thought I should be doing all of the time and what I thought that I should do and what I thought I should be eating all the time. And when I really slowed down and started healing my relationship with food, I had to relearn so many things, and really relearn what I liked, what foods I liked, what flavors I liked, what I didn't like, what textures I really preferred and whatnot. But this can be said about many areas in life. So what TV shows you enjoy watching what books you really enjoy reading, what social media accounts make you feel good when you follow them, where you like to shop, how you like to spend your weekends, where you like to go, if you have some time in the day, whether it's a walk around the block, or to a special place in your house, or, you know, a trip to your favorite star store, wherever that might be, but really taking some time to decide what your preferences are in life and what makes you happy and what doesn't make you happy.
This is really important as it relates to our relationships that we have with other people in our lives. So if you're noticing that there are certain people that are just dragging you down or making you feel judged all the time, or inadequate or unworthy, this is another area that can easily be caught up in the normalcy of life and a little hard to tease out sometimes as as it relates to our preferences in who we want to spend time with, because it can feel it can feel scary, letting those relationships go, it can feel scary shifting those relationships. And that makes a lot of sense. It's, you know, connection is a really primal human need. But I want to encourage you to just really slow down and look at all of these areas of your life and really take some time to just beginning to pay attention to what you like, what you don't like, how you might be able to slow and shift, and let go of things that are not feeling in alignment with yourself right now. And what you want to create going forward.
One more idea that I want to offer you today, before we wrap up, is intentionally looking for the good in life. And this has really helped me enjoy life more, it's helped me create a happier life doesn't mean that I don't experience difficult emotions sometimes or have tough days. But practicing an optimistic lifestyle proactively has really changed a lot for me, and has just made me feel better overall. And one way to do that is by intentionally looking for the good in situations. And I know for myself when I was really struggling with comparison, and my eating disorder and my relationship with my own self worth and self trust, and all of the things and by the way, some of these things are still work in progress. So it's definitely not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But when I was really at a low point with that, it was so much easier to find myself, judging or criticizing everything I didn't mean, but doesn't mean that I also didn't laugh or have positive things to say, or, you know, that I didn't feel good some days, but looking for things to pick apart, gave me this sense of control this false sense of power and control. And really, it just brought down my vibe. And so one of the ways that I have shifted is intentionally trying to find the good in almost every situation, almost like a little game. And if that doesn't come easily, then I asked myself, what can I learn from this. And this can really be anything from a show that I'm watching to a song I'm listening to, to a conversation that I'm having to something that I'm learning to a decision that I'm making, or an experience that I've had. And it's been such a great self awareness tool in my toolkit, it's been a really great self evaluation tool and life evaluation tool. And it's been just a good, good happiness tool, I guess is what I would describe it as because it does feel better. And it's also a mixed bag, right? Because there's a lot of people who want to stay in that negative space and who feel a lot better judging or criticizing, especially women, oh my god, we do this we get into circles, whether it's our close groups of friends or new acquaintances, or our family and then you we just dig in and kind of rip each other apart, whether it's celebrities or friends who aren't necessarily in those situations at the time, or each other ourselves just come so naturally for us. And so if that's something that you're noticing, this is also an opportunity for tremendous self compassion and extending compassion to other people, this isn't about judging or fixing anybody, everyone's on their own journey here.
But as you and I are talking today, I want to just share how this has shaped up for me and how you might be able to find some inspiration in creating a practice like this for yourself. Okay, so that's where we're gonna leave it today. This feels really good and really grounding and really complete, which we will talk about as well. In a future episode, I've been having so many juicy conversations around completion this year. And I have learned so much about the philosophy and idea and power of completion and the meaning behind it. It sounds like such a simple word, because it is one of those words that we use a lot. And it kind of loses its meaning. But oh my god, I have so many things that I want to share with you around this concept. So to be continued on the topic of completion, but as for now, I hope that you feel seen and supported and held. And I just want you to know how much I love you and how much I appreciate you. And to empower you to use whatever you took from this conversation today. And let it be enough and apply it in a way that works for you. There are no rules here, there is no one size fits all approach to feeling well in life. You get to decide that for yourself. These are all ideas and tools for you to take and run with, in whatever way feels good for you right now,.
Before I hop off, if you haven't grabbed your body acceptance starter kit yet, make sure you do if you are craving more information around videos and podcasts and articles and resources, and social media accounts. This is a resource that has all of that for you. And it's completely free. I also included 20 ideas for you to begin implementing into your life to feel more comfortable in your body. And this is really a resource that can meet you on a lot of different areas of your body image journey. Specifically if you're just getting started in accepting your body or curious about what that would look like. This is a great tool as a foundation. If you're further along in your journey. If you're working with somebody, if you're working with me, this is a great resource for you to have as well too. I use this resource for myself. So you can grab that in the show notes or at katelynparsons.com/kit , and I hope that you enjoy it. Okay, I love you so much. I hope you have a great week, and I'll talk to you later. Bye
