Ep. 87: Using Thanks to Overcome Grievances

On today’s episode, I’m sharing some quick thoughts about overcoming our grievances with an attitude of thanks.

We’re back with our 87th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!

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Episode 87 Transcription

On today’s episode, I’m sharing a thought on how instead of aiming to change our circumstances in 2017, we first aim to shift our mindset towards a more grateful, appreciative, present, focused heart.

Cassy Joy: Hello, hello, hello! Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. I am your hostess, Cassy Joy Garcia, the owner of Fed and Fit; the book, blog, nutrition consulting practice, etc. {laughs} I’m excited about today’s episode. It’s going to be probably a relatively short one. The idea for today’s topic is one of those that has come to me several times during several evenings.

You know that time right before you fall asleep at night and your mind is just all abuzz. Those really great, creative ideas come to you; you solve things that maybe have been mentally perplexing for a while. This is one of those ideas that has really; it’s come up over and over again, and I hope I do a good job of describing it. I have; some folks keep a notepad next to their bedside table to jot down these ideas. I tend to keep them in a notebook on my phone; one of those little notepads. So I have some scribbled notes to talk about it, but the memory is still really fresh. And to kind of begin with the end in mind, the point of this little mini story I’m going to tell you is really just because I want us to regain some perspective and some focus and find presence and appreciation for where we are right now before the new year comes.

I’m talking to you; if you’re listening to this show on the day that it airs, the last Monday of 2016. Isn’t that so exciting! We have so much ahead of us, and so much behind us, and it’s just always just a special time of the year; you know, that transition between the years 2016 and 2017. There are so many memories, and so much promise for the years to come.

So the thought that occurred to me; and again, I hope I do this story justice! I did a dry run with my family the other night at dinner; I was with, we were over at my parent’s house, and I just blurted out this idea, {laughs} and my parents just sat there blinking, staring at me for a second while they took in what I said.

So this thought that came to me, and maybe part of it is exhaustion; making sure we’re getting The Project up and running and everything is full steam ahead; which it is, and it’s all so exciting. But I started thinking about, you know, we all go through life. Our daily life; and we have our daily life grievances that are small and minor. But they’re irritants, right? They’re little things. It’s like; I read somewhere on one of my social media platforms; Instagram, that’s what it was. Someone was going to try to make my smothered, slow-cooker pork chops. And she was so excited about it, and then she left a comment that she came home and her husband had left them out all day long on the countertop, so the chops were spoiled. And she was so bummed about it. Like those kind of little grievances. It’s not a make or break thing, but it’s irritating. Those kinds of things come up; or your kid is just pitching a fit one day, or just in a bad mood, or I don’t know. Your dog ate your favorite pair of high heels! {laughs}

Or, you put your neck out there and you built a brand new program, and you have some programming issues, because that’s just what happens sometimes with new programs. Hi Ace! I’m being visited by the ranch puppy dog. So we all have those moments. You get in your car, and you have a pretty crunch timeline on how long it will take you to get to where you’re going and you realize you’re out of gas. Those moments. And I think that when we start to focus on those moments, and we spend too much time focusing on those small grievances, then we become very forward thinking. Right? It sets us up to want to achieve better the next day. We want to slowly start to fine tune and adjust our life so that we have fewer and fewer smaller grievances.

What I want to challenge us to is instead of focusing on minimizing our smaller grievances, what if we just found some love for them? Right? Instead of thinking, “Oh gosh, I have to endure these tiny little hiccups.” What if we looked at it, and we were like, “Man this is inconvenient, but I just have such a grateful heart for these circumstances.” And this is where this is coming from. This is the story I told my parents, and they looked at me kind of like I was a little bit nuts {laughs}. But you guys get me, so maybe this will go over a little bit easier here.

So I had the thought the other day that what if; it was kind of a matrix moment, if you guys have ever seen the movie Matrix. I was like; what if my life right now, as I know it, is all made up in my head? What if I have imagined this incredibly intricate story about falling in love with my college sweetheart, and us finding each other again after college and getting married; and he’s just the man of my dreams. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met, he’s a gentleman, he’s funny. What if all that is made up; what if that never happened? What if we didn’t live in this home that I love and that I’m able to call home? What if there was no Gus? What if my actual reality is I’m somewhere else and all of this is just a mirage? Right? What if all of it were gone? What if I never actually had those disagreements with my sisters? We don’t have a lot of disagreements, but what if they never existed? What if; I don’t know, what if I had never created Fed and Fit, and I’d never had the opportunity to talk with you guys, and to write recipes, and to build a job that is pinch-myself fun to do. It’s really, really hard work, and it has those daily grievances, but what if it never existed?

It really put me into this perspective where, I realized if all of it were gone, that’s when I decided I am living the life of my dreams. Including those grievances; because if this weren’t real; if Fed and Fit didn’t exist, if I hadn’t married this amazing man; if I weren’t born into this really fun loving family, not without our faults, and if I didn’t have that big fluffy puppy dog and if I didn’t have all of these wonderful friends; all of them with their grievances; oh my gosh, how empty and sad did that make my heart, imaging that none of that existed. If none of that existed, I would miss those grievances; I would miss those small hiccups every day.

So that really put that more grateful spin on the smaller grievances. Instead of looking at 2016, and wanting to think; “I’m going to do 2017 better” instead, it set me up for, “I’m going to appreciate 2017 more.” I expect just as many small grievances; maybe even more. Right? And I’m looking forward to them. I’m looking forward to having challenging conversations with my husband; I’m looking forward to challenges with my business. Because what an opportunity it is to be able to have. What a privilege it is to have those challenges. It is a true blessing, and a true privilege.

So while we gear up for our new year’s resolutions, and we’re setting our mindset, right; we’re really trying to Tee off and point ourselves in the right direction; I encourage you to look at setting the intention for a grateful heart in 2017. Let’s look forward to those little inconveniences, and let’s look forward to the hiccups, because gosh darn it what an awesome privilege and what an awesome opportunity we have. We have these amazing lives that are not without their complications; but isn’t it those complications, we would miss those too if none of this were real.

So that’s my thought for today. If I go anymore into it, I may start crying {laughs} and that would not make for a great show. But I hope this spoke to you, because it’s something that’s been haunting me and it’s been popping up over and over again. I always; I take those as a cue from the universe that I need to get it out there into the world. So trying to do my part; I hope it resonates. And if it doesn’t, then I’ll catch you next week with something that I think everybody will be able to get something from. But this is really my New Year’s wish for you; to approach with a grateful heart. Let’s stop looking to change ourselves, and just look to maybe shift our perspective.

At the end of the day, that’s where we can make the biggest strides in our health, and our happiness. It starts with our outlook; not necessarily with our circumstance.

Ok you guys, it has been such a wonderful, incredible, inspiring year full of so many complications it makes me teary eyed to think about how grateful I am for all of them. I really am. And I’m so thankful for your support, I’m thankful for you listening to this show, I’m thankful for every single one of you who has bought a copy of Fed and Fit, the book. Thank you so much for sharing it with your friends and family. We’re at the point now where I think there are more copies in distribution of Fed and Fit than I know people! Which is amazing! It means that you are using it, and you’re telling your friends and family about it. Gosh, that is so cool! That really is the dream. So thank you for spreading the word, thank you for making recipes from my blog, thank you for every single comment and like and post and repost on Instagram, and thank you for sending me Snapchats and tagging me on Facebook.

I mean, you really, really mean the world to me. I would not be doing this job if it were not for you. I’m doing it for you. So please know that; that’s from the bottom of my heart. So thank you for allowing me to fulfill what I believe is my life’s purpose as a professional. So thank you so much; I wish you the absolute best week in 2016; let’s pause, reflect, stay present, enjoy the moment, stay appreciative for all of the hiccups; approach them and deal with them with a smile on your face. We can always find room in our hearts for humor; humor is a great way to bridge that gap.

If you’re finding a hard time; if you find it difficult to show appreciation for some of those smaller hiccups, then start with laughter. Start with finding some kind of a humor in it, right? That’s the easiest way to go. So if you want to scapegoat out of a tricky situation, or you want a mindset shift, try to find some humor in it first. And just like building any muscle, eventually you’ll be able to really have that grateful heart. You’ll be able to walk with it; lead with it. Be able to smile all the time, enjoy life, including the ones, the circumstances where maybe they don’t always go as planned.

Anyways; thank you guys so much. You mean the world to me. We’ll be back again next week.