Fasting Space

If you are going to be fasting for weight loss
or any other reason,

I say do it with love.

And in order to do anything with love,
need to connect it to the heart.

We really dove into that last week
and I say, let's keep on going with it.

That felt so good.

So in the weight loss space, certainly in the fasting space,
with any sort of health process

from dieting, exercise, anything,

it can be approached from a perspective of war,
like we're fighting a battle

and we can bring a lot of negativity

and even punishing perspectives toward ourself.

And then we're going to force things.

And the trick is with

many of these processes
is that they can work, at least in the short term.

You can push the human body,
and we can push our emotional space and our heart into a place.

Say heart is leading in a direction.

Heart might be hurting.

And we can put that in a box and maybe high up on a shelf,
or maybe a low down shelf.

Sometimes is how it feels.

And I got to tell you, you know, it sounds crazy,
but see if you agree.

We can even forget about it down there.

And a long time can go by

where you say, man, have I even connected with the heart?

And what does that mean? Even I don't even know anymore.

And so if we are going to move in a direction of love
and light, to me

that is what a journey toward health and wholeness really is.

We can get caught up in the mind.

We've gone through cycles of that, and numbers
don't really help us do that because our mind is like

it can be very numbers focused, very analytical,

which can be very helpful, but it can also be very cold.

And that's not always the thing that really helps us connect
with our emotional center.

Wherever you feel it, whether you feel it
in, the harder you feel it in the gut,

you know it's somewhere in here within the body.

And this is the sort of practice, you know,
we lose weight in the body.

We're trying to bring health and wholeness
to the physical system.

And we think, well, I'm going to use the mind to do that.

And what I want to expand our thinking and vision on
is that we've got a mind and a body,

and if we get out of the mind for a little while,

help us get into the body, and body can help us in that.

So we say, put the weapons down

and open up the heart.

We're going to have a quote today.

I'm going to read you that is going to help us with that. And.

Let's dive into it.

The thing I was thinking about over the weekend is,

and this is just a thought, is fasting 10%, you know,

and maybe by fasting, I just when I say

fasting honestly in my mind what I think.

Ironically, perhaps I think

both fasting and healthy eating.

To me these are two sides of the same
coin, always is just interchangeably.

Because always we need to be eating on some frequency,

even if that frequency is less than what is typically done.

We call that fasting.

But if we are going to be thoughtful enough

to practice some amount of fasting in our life, like,

let's be thoughtful enough to put the healthiest food
into our body also, you know, maybe that's step one.

Getting the healthiest food okay is maybe an easier step to take

if you're starting on a practice
of trying to love the body right?

Give it the most nutritious energy that you can.

And then as we're flowing through that space,
we're bringing healthy food in.

Then we thoughtfully say,
how much space does the body really need?

I like that progression.

So is fasting and healthy eating this dietary space?

If we're talking about a long term
sustainable process of health?

Is that 10% of it and then is 90% of it.

This was just my thought.

How do you think about it and how do you feel about it?

This is what I'm calling the fasting heart.

You know, if we got if you can just be all mind,

you know, and mentally your way to the goal that you want
and say.

I just I've got my spreadsheet.

I hit my meal window target and then that's I go about my day.

So that would be the very simplest.

And some people can do that.

And if that is simple fasting for you, you say, hey,
I just made this switch.

I hit the windows 16 eight if I needed more power.

Oh, mad. You know, I just dialing that in.

If that still wasn't working, we say I have a fasting day

from time to time and you start throwing in a fasting day
on top of some of these other windows,

you know, that's going to take you,
you know, where you want to go.

So you say as a concept, but then you say in practice

to do it, to maintain it, to have a flow of this
where it becomes a lifestyle.

It's one thing to know about it,
that other thing to be able to do it.

So 90% what you think can feel.

And so I invite you right now, let me know what you think.

Put it in the comments.

If you're here live, throw in the chat.

If you're on the comments, like throw

a little heart emoji or something in the comments.

If you feel like this, like you've been fighting the body ever.

Like you've you feel like man,
the heart is where I really need to focus over

just a number and appreciate that.

So this quote, this is what's going to help us today.

Get into it.

Grief can be the garden of compassion
if you keep your heart open through everything,

your pain can become your greatest ally in your life.

Search for love and wisdom from Rumi.

Compassion
is the word that I was thinking about over the weekend,

which is what brought me into this quote that I remembered.

And here we are getting into a beautiful intersection
love and compassion.

We're talking about the fasting heart,
the way that I would suggest

that people practice fasting
is a loving and compassionate process.

It is first and foremost loving and compassionate
toward our self.

The practitioner, like the one person that we can really,

you know, control
or have the deepest relationship with ourself, right.

We talk about what are the processes that can help us

bring love to ourself.

Do you feel this way ever?

Like we said at the beginning, has weight
loss or health path felt like a battle or a struggle?

Have you used what should be health tools

as some form of self punishment as like, you know,

you think of beating ourselves up at the gym
not as a joyful expression

of just moving the body, but as like

from a place of anger, frustration
that we're going to push the body in a place.

Just the mere fact of going through a price like process

like that, you know, fighting with the body,
feeling alienated and at war

with our own being itself can be somewhat of a

do you feel this way, a traumatic experience?

I think we can have grief even about things like that.

Having gone through time, dark and frustrating times.

And I think these are part of the things where
maybe that's what the heart is feeling

hard is feeling like, I would help you.

Could you just listen? And then we don't.

And so as we're coming back into the body,

we say we're getting out of all the thoughts and saying,
what is the body really experiencing?

Sometimes even just dealing with our history and health

and a weight loss path, times
where we have felt judged by people

or judged by ourselves or frustrated.

So even to grieve things like that.

Sometimes I know it can be even hard to start something new.

I say, oh, we have been going through a space and it's like

you have to grieve even to get into that space.

Here is the message of the day from it.

Keep the heart open.

When we start to experience something difficult,
we open up a space.

This is to me what is the there's maybe the barrier.

This is what is can be hard about fasting
even more than the physical thing.

I did the poll on the channel. People agree.

We say what is more difficult getting into a fasting space?

The physical sensation of being hungry in the body,

or the open space where the emotions that come in
that are the things that are driving

really our desire to consume in the first place.

Sometimes we can have the mindset say, oh, fasting as a concept,
I get it.

Open up the space so the body can burn the energy
that's already there.

Simple in concept, but deep and profound in practice

because it's not just the physical act of going
without food for a period of time, it's

the emotional space that it opens up

and that sort of process, emotional space.

So like the heart is opening up, we can say, I don't like that,

can feel uncomfortable and can even feel painful.

This is where the quote is going.

You have to choose to do it, you know,
are kind of our natural inclination which has certain value.

Right?

We want to protect ourselves, especially emotionally.

Who wants to feel bad emotionally.

So many times something gets in there.

We've described it like a seed.

Some emotional damage is happening.

It takes space to heal. Something like that.

Fasting space, the physical side of it in the body,
and open space for contemplation.

Whether you call that meditation or just a contemplation
it takes to process it.

And then I think this is doing it.

You have to have the heart open through it.

Then pain can become the ally, as dark as it can be,

as uncomfortable as it can sometimes be.

We described in some session. Was it just last week?

We were talking.

It was in a session
where we were talking about food compulsions, a food addiction,

where we are trying to overcome cycles
of eating that aren't serving us.

They say we want to change it.

We feel called to change it, but then it's difficult.

In that session we saw.

An addiction specialist, Doctor Matt was saying.

That underlying.

Addictions of any kind, some sort of cycle

that we were stuck in, of any kind, is often

some sort of injury or some sort of search for love.

And so this is where that's kind of a thread
I want to weave into this quote that.

Fasting heart.

Take this pain through a loving process for self flowing out

to others, that we turn pain and difficulty into progress.

This is what the quote is just exactly saying.

Turn our experience things that have been

barriers and blockages to our process,

turning them into an ally,

turning them into wisdom as beautiful.

What an incredible thing to seek for in our life.

Seek to become wise based on the experiences that we've had.

Wisdom say maybe a very simple level in our life.

Learning from our past, using the past

so that we don't repeat cycles of negativity, that we haven't

appreciated, that we say that hasn't served me very well

and we are going to gain wisdom from it, use it as an ally

so that we can step on top of it and climb up

the next step in our process.

Not that that is an easy thing to do.

Takes compassion.

That's the thing to circle it back around.

Grief can be the garden of compassion.

If we are tending that garden, is that our own life?

In the mindset of all these things?

Just bringing it back to that.

That's where I started the Thinking compassion this weekend.

It's not an easy task, and it is an especially not an easy task.

In a society that I say isn't really very compassionate.

And we don't really think. Do you think this is true?

I don't think we look to compassion as a weight loss tool,

but I think it might be one of the most powerful tools.

To look at our life and our experience and say, you know what?

This isn't easy.

And look, this is how we bring such a thoughtful perspective
to what we're doing.

Look at what I am doing here.

You know, is I am moving in a healthy
and positive direction is not an easy thing to do.

And anybody who is doing that,
I just want to give you the greatest amount of encouragement.

I say thank you for doing that is hard work

to open the heart and actually,

you know, to move toward people, ourselves

and others with love is actually not even easy either.

Like, you know, you think, shouldn't it be the easiest thing?

But then, in fact, ironically, it is one of the most

difficult things that you look at the state of the world.

And isn't the state of the world highly lacking

in love and compassion and kindness?

And if it was actually the easiest thing to do, wouldn't.

Wouldn't it just be happening?

But you have to choose to do it so often

to move toward ourself

and other people in love is actually
you need a quote like this to do it.

Don't you, that you actually have to open your heart to do it,

and that many times the path of doing that involves
some amount of pain to go through?

But isn't that process accepting it?

So I think that we come to accept things in our life.

We accept no, it's worth it to me, have some amount of pain

that we experience
to be able to open up the heart and really connect.

And is that how we connect in love for ourselves and others

come to accept that amount of pain to me.

You know, then we can see it.

Is that the path, actually that love leads us through?

Places that are can often be dark and difficult,
and that it's a struggle

and that it is moving out of our self and our mind
and our thoughts that are always only self-centered.

Help us to reach out and share love and light with people,
even when it's difficult.

To me, that feels like the type of thing
that the more people that we can all do it.

I mean, I'm sharing the path
that I am trying to take myself on as much as anything.

Do the hard work embrace the path and the difficulty
that is moving toward love and light?

I love that that's helping me take a deep breath.

See that path.

To me, this is the deeper path
that is underlying the the weight loss path.

When we are getting in our mindset
like this, that we are moving in this type of direction,

then the choices that flow out of that to me
are the healthiest choices.

And we can take that perspective.

It's it's harder, I would say on on a certain level,

is it it at least takes more thought
to get into this layer of thinking.

Right?

I'm just thinking about, you know, sitting in the clinic

and talking with someone who comes in and someone says,
you know, they're here for a weight loss consult

or they're here for a diabetes consult or saying,
how do we move things in a direction?

You can take a very time efficient process

and however much time you're allotted in these types of things,
you say, well, we can talk about glucose levels

and we can answer questions about numbers and macros

and, and these things we can talk about. But.

Think of a space.

How do you, you know, to get into a space
where we're getting into the core layer,

like Atomic Habits was saying,
how do you drill down into the identity first?

And do we want the identity to be love and kindness?

And when we encounter love, kindness

and compassion in the body,

you say, this is really taken
some work to get down into that space.

You know, I think about our experience
on the channel here together, fasting space.

We've done hundreds of episodes of live sessions

trying to bring in the most powerful thinking in health
so that we can create

a powerful mindset, sustainable health process
that brings us there.

It's like, you know, did we do

however many hundred episodes
before we, like, have encountered this space

where it's like, is love really at the heart of it?

Which feels so good and natural to me,

but it's like, very is this what we really need?

Is this what would help us say if we have done the deep work,
like Rumi is saying,

of finding compassion, tending the garden of compassion,

opening up the heart
and turning the pain that we have into an ally

so that we can radiate out love and wisdom into our life.

Doesn't that just feel deep and incredible?

This is what I want it to be doing.

If we can be so thoughtful as to actually manifest

something like that in our life.

Do you think that that would help you
to make a different decision,

to flow through some difficulty
in a more powerful and grounded way?

I know this is what I want to do it challenging that

I am facing both in health and every other area of life.

Find a space that is grounded in something deep and profound,

love and compassion that helps us

lead with the heart and be open

when we when we feel that calling of the heart.

Maybe we are feeling that in this sort of space,

like I know there is a healthier path,
you know, and I can see it.

But you say when we're struggling to do it,
struggle is one of these places

when I want this space and sessions
to be right, helping people to minimize struggle.

I don't have any desire to have people struggling.

But then at the same time,
we recognize that almost everything of value

in life requires struggle to attain.

I shared a quote, I think last fall from Jensen

Wong, CEO of Nvidia, one of the most.

You know, wealthy people in the world.

You know, he's built this incredible company.

He was giving some advice.

I'd have to paraphrase it now,
but he was saying reporter or something

asked him, you know, what is your advice for young people
who want to succeed, maybe break into this space?

He said, you know, in the nicest way
I would say that, you know,

I hope that you suffer
because suffering is what leads to growth.

And this is this is a hard pill you say to swallow.

And I feel like this quote is really taking us into that place.

You know, let's say we're trying to create pathways
that help to minimize every sort of struggle.

And I say a lot,
I want people flowing toward health, not struggling toward it.

And then in this space we see, okay, but
we have struggles in life and we want to grow from it and learn.

And maybe the biggest growth that we can possibly

have is to keep our heart open.

Like this quote is saying in in the face of struggle
and not just wall ourselves

off, you know, we can wall ourselves off
and sometimes we do that.

Maybe we have to do it in a scenario.

Some terrible trauma has happened to us,
and it's like the only way that we survived for

maybe we aren't at that extreme level,
but it's just something bad happened and we just naturally

we tried to defend ourselves and maybe it even did help us
and maybe it was the right thing to do.

But now, in this moment, you see,
if we want to grow very hard to grow when we're walled off,

you know, says quote is saying, keep the heart open, open it up.

Maybe now is the safe time, maybe it's not.

But I want everybody in the space.

Safe time.

Right.

Safe space where you say now is

everything is in a way where we can actually open this up a bit.

In the ideal scenario, I'd say
I don't wish suffering on anybody, but I wish growth on people.

And so always only voluntarily chosen.

You know, I don't want anyone suffering forced on anyone.

When people are in a solid space, when you feel called to it,

when you're leaning through it, through the heart

to voluntarily open up and say, I accept.

Whatever has happened, I accept the difficulty of doing my best,

at least to try to open up this space so that we can heal,

and so that we can learn and grow from it.

And if there is some amount of struggle
required to go through that, say, I accept that.

But then even on a broader level,
when we are growing and passing through something like that,

isn't that also the process that helps to remove

further barriers, you know,

so that in the future
we can more easily flow through these things?

I think it is, you know, and maybe this is part of the process.

We get into a state where we are flowing through things,

and then it helps to us to identify in our life, you know,
what is the next obstacle now?

The water flowed into this space,
and now we can see, because we are thoughtful

and aware that we are running into a barrier of some kind.

And now stay open.

Stay open through it and overcome it. So.

As much as possible
while we're doing it, see the, the the trouble

like we are seeing at the start
when we are forcing our way through health,

when we are not moving from a place of love and kindness,

but rather from a place of anger and punishment. And.

As a very high stress state
that is, communicating to the body is not a safe space.

And as much as anything, it has hormonal effects in the body.

Raising our cortisol, raising

the adrenaline, turning on the sympathetic system.

And we did that session back last year.

Now on inflammation.

How that chronic.

Stress state ends up having many different signals to the body.

That are unhealthy, that underlie the development

of coronary disease and liver disease and diabetes,
and that can drive weight gain

and a host of metabolic and cognitive processes
that are detrimental.

And so as we think about, well,

the things that help to undo that,

that we talk about the meditation and journaling and breathing,

exercise, healthy food, fasting,
all these things in the same sort of space.

Doesn't love help us?

Isn't that isn't that the side of the process,

the parasympathetic state, calming
down, finding peace, grounding?

Isn't that actually the loving
and the accepting more than the anger and the fighting?

Marie is here. Good morning. Hello. How are you?

I hope you are well.

There's a fine line between using pain
as a punishment versus pain.

As a teacher, I used to try to use pain as a way to push through

dieting and fasting,
but now try to accept and gently move through.

Absolutely. Yeah.

It definitely takes a lot more thought and self reflection.

That is absolutely.

That is absolutely the thing.

Glad to hear that you're moving on that path.

I think it is a powerful thing, but not not necessarily easy.

We think about here's two things that are coming into my mind.

Not necessarily easy, not necessarily obvious, you know.

And so, you know, to to make the shift and do it,

you say to, to keep on the, the first path,

you know, maybe this is cultural, maybe it's the part of things

that, that we just kind of absorbed from things.

But it's, it's kind of the default path,
like you're saying in that in there,

just to the more pain you feel means like, oh,

we must care more because, like,
I'm really bringing the intensity now.

You know, I'm really punishing myself now because I really care
and I really want this.

And this is kind of the way that society is.

We bring a hammer to the process

and we smash our way, way in.

And this is, you know, and, on broad
levels, how we deal with things.

We have shock and awe programs
and these sort of things on the biggest level.

And, and then we can bring that all the way down
to the micro level.

And, you know, maybe if we are getting really philosophical,
maybe this is why we are seeing

the manifestations on the big level is because collectively,

as people, we haven't done the
the work of being able to put the hammer down

and actually accept things and move

toward other people in a loving and kind way.

And so these practices, you know, we can't

I often I'll just tell you, I've gotten overwhelmed
by the state of the world and how it is.

And and then you can feel powerless, of course,
because you say on some level, we are

we cannot change a global conflict
and all these things, things that we can change as ourself.

And. You say it takes a lot more thought

and self-reflection to do that,
but this is the actual work that we can do.

And the more I've thought about it,
I think it actually does matter.

It matters for ourselves especially.

But then,
I think it matters in the big picture that we all start learning

how to move toward love and light and compassion
and thoughtfulness.

And you say, even if it wasn't, you know, the magic bullet

that solved every health problem, like

if it is on a deeper layer

that helped us to experience more love and light

in our life, you know, than it would it would be worth it.

No matter what happened with any sort of health process.

My experience has been that getting into that space
is actually what helps to make things

sustainable for people in the long term, that

because it is a more grounded, positive,
loving state, you say, oh, like,

who doesn't want more love and light in their life?

More peace and contentment
to feel grounded and satisfied in their experience?

Getting into this route layer is how we unwind

a lot of the emotional situations, which are

because we are a mind body,

spirit entity, you know, all these things intertwined.

So as we unwind that,
that can help to unwind that hormonal space, that stress space,

having real physical effects in the body.

And so, you know, certainly I've sat with hundreds

and hundreds of people
who are working through a struggle to lose weight.

And you say it just feels like
it's just locked up in there, right?

You say, like it can be a hard
you say nut to crack, like the energy is there.

I'm I'm doing these practices and processes like,

why doesn't the needle move faster than it does?

Part of this, like the quote is saying,
I was I was thinking about this this weekend.

Part of this process of the quote is about attaining wisdom.

Part of attaining wisdom is also about attaining patience.

And I tell you, if you want to learn some patience,

fasting is like a patient's training program.

A weight loss process is like a patience program.

Patience is not the the default state in our society.

Right?

And we're a very on demand, instant sort of culture.

We want things to be happening now.

A problem like a weight gaining problem

did not happen over a couple months, right?

It has been something that happened

over usually many years as an experience.

And you say to have it solved over a couple months

already is what sets up and so much marketing.

Like, you know, we are in this crazy moment of marketing

where those who have the most money

and the most reach get the loudest voice.

They're trying to sell everybody
everything, able to say like, just, just do this.

This is the easy path. You just do these things. He's like.

And we see happy people having lots of success
and lots of promises are made.

And when these promises do not live up,
it can be so discouraging.

But like they say here, searching for wisdom,
very connected into patience,

very grounded process, helps us be okay with that.

Helps us to practice acceptance.

However things are.

You say. I wish things were happening faster. Absolutely.

I, I would too, I do too.

But if we can learn patience and that can help us flow

through a space in a gentle fashion
where we're not fighting ourselves.

Can help us to reach a deeper

and more profound layer of health and healing.

That, in the long run, might ultimately be to our advantage.

And this is what I would say.

Take any struggle that you are having in this moment

and look at it through this lens

and say, I'm going to keep my heart open here and realize that

whatever difficulty I'm going through, this can become an ally.

I will take this experience that I am having,

and I will turn it into love and wisdom going forward.

And this will help me to be a more patient,

kind, loving, a thoughtful person.

I am going to think about that today.

Specifically, I have a I have many things that I can identify.

I wish things were happening faster.

I wish things were different.

See, already when we say that, here's kind of a paradox to go,
we say, I wish things are different.

Well, that can be a very positive thing.

I want this channel for people to be an aspirational vision,
you know, to see things,

that things could be different and they could be better,
and that we can develop a powerful mindset.

This is what climbing the mountain is.

I love that metaphor that we've been using.

The mountain is you, the mountain is me.

The we take the things that we want.

We stop searching for the answer externally, and we realize

that often times the real barriers that we have are within us,
and that we are up

for taking a journey and walking
and putting in the work to overcome that.

So like that's,
you know, one perspective, things could be different

and we can inspire and we can change.

But then on the other side of it, to see that

accepting things as they are
is also an incredibly powerful path.

And. It so much of what we're actually looking for that

we already have and that we already can have.

That peace and contentment and happiness, joy,
satisfaction, love are actually already here.

And so often like we are trying to accomplish something
or change something,

maybe not even for ourselves, but maybe for someone else.

And if we can sit in a space

and realize that we like,
what is the thing that we ultimately want, you know,

do we want to lose weight or are we looking for love, joy,
acceptance, something externally?

And can we give ourselves that gift first,
give ourselves that gift.

Right now,
we don't have to wait until we accomplish something that society

or someone else says that we should accomplish
to be a good person or good enough.

It's can we give ourselves that gift right now
to realize like you are good enough?

It's like I tell myself, you are good enough right now.

You don't have to accomplish everything.

We can take all the pressure off of the entire situation here.

Nothing else is required. Is where I say is the real.

The fasting heart helps us to patiently sit in a space, practice

patience, love for ourselves, and and recognize that hey,
everything is okay here.

Like we if we are stuck in a cycle of consumption
like I have to eat to keep feeling good

and all of a sudden fasting space
and we say, I'm not eating here, and look at this.

Look at what can happen in the body.

Look at how the fasting space can burn through
so many of these hormones

that are keeping us stuck in cycles where we aren't content.

Someone who has never practiced fasting, you say,
and this was me before I

when I just learned about fasting,
I say, well, that sounds horrible.

Like that sounds like a thing I would not want to do.

I was a four meal a day eater for just like all growing up and

and the idea of deviating from that, say, I might be hungry,
I feel bad like that is not how my body works.

But then to flow into that space
and then to actually feel it in the body and say, oh, like that

hunger came and then it left again
and on the other side of it, without eating,

there was actually a space of contentment again, like,
that's kind of a revelation.

And as much as we can have
that with just food in the physical body,

what I want for people
more is to find that in the mental and the emotional space.

So that same sort of feeling,
have you felt it where you were hungry and then it went away

and you felt more grounded content like,

can we bring that also into the rest of our body

so that we can feel I want, you know,

like I said, didn't
I say at the beginning maybe 10% of the journey?

This was my thought.

This weekend is healthy eating and fasting and all these things.

And 90% is how do we feel about it?

How do we think and feel about these things?

Because isn't it the case
if we are feeling badly about it, like people don't continue

to do things in the long term that they're feeling badly about,

like it's like we try to avoid that in general.

And so if we want a sustainable health practice
that is going to serve us

across decades, you know, that can be a long term thing.

I say it has to be a wellness practice in and of itself.

What I experience and what many people experience.

You put in some hard work of changing a pattern

and you say, oh, in the past
I used to be intimidated by fasting,

but then I realized I could do some of it
and that it was actually okay.

And that as we sink into these really deep levels

of compassion and openness

that we say, oh, when that was difficult, this is what we have

been on this line with, struggle to say, well,

see, fasting is giving us a mirror and a pattern in life

that we can use and take to other areas in our life
where we can see physically in the body

that there was some amount of struggle
in order to change an eating pattern.

And we felt hungry for a while.

And there's kind of a dissonance, you know, like,
but then things came back into alignment and the.

Things settled into a more grounded space.

Well, now we can see that that can happen in other areas
in our life, that we can make changes, that any time

that we change things, that there can be

a little bit of a phase shift, but that we flow through that.

And then and then we people tend to be linear thinkers, right?

We tend to take an experience
and then extrapolate a line going on forever.

People do this with hunger.

They think, oh, the longer I eat, it'll be one straight line.

My suffering will only increase forever.

But then we see, oh, there's a flow to it.

And so much of life there is a flow to these things.

We have to recognize that.

So when we got to this point.

Maybe this isn't a struggle with anxiety.

Maybe this is some other experience

with trauma or difficulty or frustration.

Anger.

We don't have to have linear thinking.

We could say, oh, I, I fasted through it and then I was better.

And now I am working through this challenge
and then it is going to be better.

In the midst of the struggle,
recognizing the flow in the midst of the struggle.

Help us tap into this, that this is the way the world is.

You know, to me, you know, I like.

Looking to the seasons that way.

The the natural cycles of the Earth, to me,
are always a great encouragement

to recognize as we flow into one season
and then we're flowing into another.

This is like problems in our life and difficulties and struggles
we have.

We don't have to have linear thinking.

Another quote that is like that, like the night is darkest
just before the dawn.

You know, we don't descend into eternal darkness, right?

The at the darkest point,
and then the sun starts coming up in a new day, is there?

So these sort of natural cycles to me
are always a great encouragement

and love bringing them into this sort of space.