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In this episode of her podcast, Betsy discusses her recent struggle with an array of life disruptions, most notably, her bout with COVID. She talks about her life going sideways over the past six weeks, including health problems and unexpected issues in her new house. With a backdrop of constant challenges, Betsy was forced to surrender and rethink her approach to life. Her bout with COVID made her realize she was investing too much energy into places that weren’t bringing her joy or progress. Instead of being in a state of constant hustle and accomplishment, she has learned to enjoy the process of tasks and focus on the present moment. This newfound perspective has given her a sense of alignment, feeling as if she’s been reborn. Betsy encourages listeners to take time for themselves, be present, and avoid the constant need for accomplishment.
transcription:
Welcome to the Art of Living big podcast. My name is Betsy pake. I’m an author, a speaker, and a trainer of NLP and hypnotherapy. And I’m focused on helping you understand and design your life with the power of the subconscious. This podcast is designed to help you think differently about what could be possible for your life. Now, let’s go live big.
Hello fellow adventurers. Hi, everybody. Wow, this was some rough energy the past six weeks.
I have been through it. So
I missed last week, I’ve had COVID. And actually, today is the first day that I’ve felt like, okay, like it’s leaving my body. So it’s been about 10 days now. And I have really been struggling this past six weeks, like, everything has gone sideways. You know, you guys have heard maybe heard the episode where I talked about the leak in my apartment. And I’m not even going to go into all the different ways that things went sideways. And honestly, even if I did, I don’t think you’d believe me, you’d be like, there’s no way and then and then and then that how can that be? Everything sideways. Now, I have a really strong belief that everything is always working out for me. I really believe that. And that has kept me going through lots of things in my life, where from outward appearances, it would seem like things aren’t okay.
And I just have a belief that everything is working in my favor. And so I have noticed over the past six weeks, like, I’ve had to deal with things like there’s been actionable things I’ve had to do just to, like, make it through, you know, with the leak, and
you know, many, many things that happened in my apart barrel at my house, my new house I moved into.
But in all of that,
I finally got to where I was just like, I’ve got to surrender. And I don’t know how, like, I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. I just know that I’m like, I felt like I was like treading water. Like as soon as I would fix one thing, you know, a next thing would come. And you know, I,
I got an $800 water bill from my first month, and I wasn’t even in the house. So then I was like, Oh my God, is there a leak in my house yet to be determined. But while I was working on that the air conditioner, unit froze. And then there was an issue with my roof. And then I had a
attack cyber attack and took money from my account. Like I there were so many things. And I was like, I don’t know how to surrender to this. Like, what am I supposed to do? Help me surrender. And so of course, as the universe does, it said, Well, let me just give you COVID Because then you will just have to lay in bed, just lay in bed. And I. And I think that like all the people coming in and out of my house fixing things for so long. I mean, every day for, you know, a month, I had people in and out of my living place.
And, you know, over the time of COVID, you guys all experienced that where you were home all the time. And so there was a level of I’m not exposed to as many people so I’m not getting colds even or the flu or whatever, like all of our sicknesses went down because we weren’t exposed to anybody. But honestly, that’s how I live. I have worked from home for 10 years. And so I haven’t had a lot of like exposure to different people all the time. My husband does because he’s an attorney. So he’s at the jail, or he’s with, you know, loads of different people in and out of the courtroom. And so I have often thought like, maybe I get a little bit of germs from him and get some immunity. But, you know, his immunity is really high because he has those experiences, and I don’t. And so with that barrage of people coming in and out of my space.
All of a sudden, I was just like, at first I thought I’m not able to focus. My husband would say stuff and I’m like, I’m sorry, I cannot focus on what you’re saying. But I thought it was just a sign of overwhelm from everything that was going on. But now I realized it was a little bit of brain fog from COVID. And then you know, by that Monday, I was just like, just down I was not feeling good at all. I could feel my lungs were like
on fire, you know, I know my husband ended up getting COVID, he didn’t have that sensation, but I definitely had the I can feel every ventricle in my lungs.
Ah, so it forced me to slow down.
It forced me to stop and to surrender. And say, Well, what are you doing? That you enjoy?
What are you doing that brings you happiness? And makes you feel good? And where are the places that you’re struggling? And that you feel like you’re spinning your wheels? And why are you putting so much energy into that? You know, having to just lay there for two weeks, I think I thought a lot more about where am I putting my energy. And I wanted to share that with you today. Because I’m curious if you are experiencing that same thing, like maybe you haven’t gotten COVID. But you are experiencing that same thing of like, I am putting a lot of energy into places where there’s no movement, or I’m putting a lot of energy into places where it’s not really bringing me joy or happiness.
And it started it. I know, for me, it started to make me wonder, like, where do I want to put that energy, energy is a limited resource.
I can I can make more money, I can make more, you know, as things were going wrong, I was like, it’s just money, I really didn’t panic about that. But energy, this is taking so much of my energy.
And I started to think about where I needed to plug the buttons, like where
where there were holes, where I was allowing a lot of my energy to go in order to maybe make other people comfortable or make things easier, or make them less conflict or whatever the thing is.
And so I wonder with you, too. Are there places where you’re spinning your wheels?
Where you’re putting a lot of energy? And maybe you feel like you have to keep going like you have to do that just to keep all the balls in there. I’ll tell you there’s nothing that brings you clarity on how much impact you actually have is COVID being in bed for two weeks, like nothing, nobody died.
You know what I mean? Like nobody, everybody could function without me. Like there was no, there was no catastrophe.
Nothing bad happened.
I mean, I don’t feel like I was as present or connected with my groups. And that bothered me, which made me know that was important to me, and something that I enjoy.
My daughter wished she could do laundry at my house. But nobody was like nothing bad was happening.
And I wonder as you think about all the places where your energy is drained, where you’re not filling up your own cup, because you feel like you’ve got to keep going, I promise you.
Nothing will happen. Nothing bad will happen. Do you know where I’m spending a lot of my time now is sitting on my porch. It’s been raining almost every afternoon. And every morning I go out there. Well, it’s still cool. And then every afternoon when it rains and it cools down, I just sit
most of the time I don’t even bring my phone.
I have disconnected from
comparison on social media. I mean, really ask yourself, how much time am I spending comparing that for me? That was a thing. Maybe that’s not a thing for you. But it wasn’t me just looking. I didn’t even realize it. It was me going ah should be doing that. Oh my god, I’m not doing this.
But when I would just sit out there. Honestly, that was bringing me joy. Listening to the rain. I have hummingbirds. I have carpenter bees to get him to take care of those.
I put up twinkly lights out there. And I got some big ferns. And every morning I take the ferns down, and I walk them to the back of the house. And I water them. And I got a watering spigot that has like all the different
options. You know, you can rotate it and there’s a shower when there’s just like a flood of water. And it’s feel so fun to just water the ferns and then
walk back welcome back up front and hang them from the porch. This may sound a little silly, but I think you kind of know what I mean. It’s like these simple things that honestly I had been.
I had been
thinking I was paying attention to I was only paying attention to them to mark them off a list that I was paying attention to. And when I was able to just completely disconnect
And nobody needed me and there was nothing that had to be done.
I could actually like settle into what is it that’s really bringing me this level of joy that I want, or or
I want to say is it joy, it was just being present in a different way, in just such a different way. And
I think I have
probably like a lot of you grown up in a hustle culture, where my success comes from the accomplishment. You know, I put up curtains, and I put in those I did like the pleading curtains. So I had to put the little I don’t know if you guys know what I’m talking about. But there’s this little metal thing that you have to weave into the curtain in order to make it like pleat. So that when you hang them, they’re all pleading, and they look really pretty. But it’s a tedious process to put those clips in. You have to like count out the spaces and put them in and I just, I didn’t feel good. And but it felt fun to do that.
And I just said, I’m just going to take as long as it takes, like, I’m not going to be like I’ve got to finish this. The joy wasn’t in completing the process. The joy was actually in doing it. That was a shift for me, maybe it’s not for you. But it was a shift for me, I have been in this whole hustle culture of
accomplishing.
And my gosh, I think all of this stuff’s been happening to just make me stop and go, Wait a second. That’s not what’s bringing me the life I really want to have. I have reevaluated so many things, I feel so aligned. And as if I have been reborn in some ways.
Things just feel and look
and sound different.
Because it’s not in getting to the end anymore. And honestly, getting to the end wasn’t bringing me happiness, it was making me feel like I was never accomplishing anything. Even though, when I look back I really was.
I think it was always like if I could get more listeners on the podcast, you know, if I could get more people showing up to my lives if I could get more. And now it feels different. It feels different now.
I share all of this just in case.
Maybe it gives you like a big breath too.
And maybe there’s a place in your life where the universe doesn’t have to like knock you sideways for six weeks.
And maybe it’s just what can I do to breathe into this moment?
What can I do to really understand everything that’s here for me right now.
And, you know, I think I think that’s really how you live a big life. Thanks, you guys so much for listening. Thanks for bearing with me. As I’ve been sick. I appreciate you and I love you so much. I’ll see you guys next week.
Hey, thanks so much for listening to today’s show. And thank you for sharing the show with your friends. I love when you guys do that. I appreciate it so much. And thank you for leaving me a review on iTunes. I know that it matters because when I go to find a podcast, I always look to see what the reviews are. So it really means a lot to me that you take a minute to like figure out how to even make that happen. Now, if you want to find me find me on social media, I’m usually on Instagram, starting out on Tik Tok. It’s just my name. Betsy pake, and that’s my website to Betsy pake.com. And you can find out all about the work that I do. having me speak for an event that you might be hoping to plan or getting trained inside my alchemy Institute. But to make it really easy, if you want me just shoot me a DM shoot me a direct message on Instagram and I will be at your service. Thanks again for listening. And I will see you all next week.
