Imagine harnessing the power to perceive your world more lucidly and understand how these perceptions affect your relationships and decision-making. That's what we're promising in this enlightening episode. We're going to unpack the difference between perception and perspective, and how understanding these can significantly impact your actions and interactions. We'll discuss the importance of evaluating the motives of those in your life, ensuring mutual benefits in your relationships, and the courage to make changes if a relationship is no longer serving your best interests.
But that's not all. We are also bringing mindfulness to the forefront. Your host, Lashanna Alfred, will guide you through simple, intentional self-awareness practices for your body, mind, and spirit that you can weave into your daily routine. Starting with just five minutes a day, working up to 20, you'll learn to observe your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgement, fostering a more mindful and aware existence. It’s time to empower yourself with these insights and start living a more conscious and fulfilling life. So, are you ready to explore this transformative journey with us?
Imagine harnessing the power to perceive your world more lucidly and understand how these perceptions affect your relationships and decision-making. That's what we're promising in this enlightening episode. We're going to unpack the difference between perception and perspective, and how understanding these can significantly impact your actions and interactions. We'll discuss the importance of evaluating the motives of those in your life, ensuring mutual benefits in your relationships, and the courage to make changes if a relationship is no longer serving your best interests.
But that's not all. We are also bringing mindfulness to the forefront. Your host, Lashanna Alfred, will guide you through simple, intentional self-awareness practices for your body, mind, and spirit that you can weave into your daily routine. Starting with just five minutes a day, working up to 20, you'll learn to observe your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgement, fostering a more mindful and aware existence. It’s time to empower yourself with these insights and start living a more conscious and fulfilling life. So, are you ready to explore this transformative journey with us?
Welcome to the Self Care Society podcast with your hosts Celia Williamson, ashley Kutcher, louis Guardiola and Carrie Shaw, a podcast devoted to those whose job it is to help others get or remain mentally, physically and emotionally healthy, but who also need to take care of themselves. How we're going to do this? By first showing you the filtered, pretty version of success, and then the real struggles, real work and raw grit it took to get there, how they took care of themselves and also achieved their goals while doing it Together. We will work with you to improve and maintain your internal health and growth, while helping you achieve your external goals and your next professional achievement in life. And we're excited to show you how to follow your own individual and unique path and achieve the dreams you have while taking good care of yourself. So let's get started.
Speaker 2:Welcome everyone. This is LaShanna Alfred. I am one of your facilitators in the self care groups and today I want to share with you on the power of perception. The power of perception this is so very important. How you see a thing, how you interpret things, will determine how you move throughout this life whether you allow new people in your life or whether you find yourself staying isolated or with the same people and the unfortunate reality is sometimes the same people that we choose to stay connected to is not helping us. They're not helping us, but yet because of our perception, you know, of allowing new people into our lives, our perception about the world around us and even ourselves keeps us locked behind this wall that we created to keep people from coming in, but also that same wall keeps us from getting out. And so when we're looking at perception right, it's how we interpret a thing. So, when you think about relationships or, you know, at your job or with friends, family, something can happen. Just over the holiday, something can happen, and your interpretation of what happens can cause you to isolate, withdraw, you know, no longer talk to the person, and you can literally be looking at the situation through what I call foggy lenses. Foggy lenses, right. And so now a relationship is broken because of how we interpret whatever has happened. So we invited someone over. They didn't come. We interpret it as you know. They're not loyal, you know they're not faithful, you know we do more for them than they do for us. And so we begin to isolate withdrawal when the reality is it may not even been that they just didn't want to come, because we all know that life circumstances happen that will prevent us from doing some things that we even would like to do. And so when we're looking at perception our ability to see, hear or become aware of something through the senses right. The state of being or how we process, the state of coming into a thought about a situation right. And so here it is, when we're looking at perception versus perspective. So just say, you're driving along and you're listening to this podcast and you're bringing up things that has happened in your life, relationships that has been broken, and you're looking at your evaluating, like, okay, did I really handle that right? And so here I am talking from my perspective, right. So perspective is a point of view, right, like my opinion. And so my opinion is going to come from my experiences, my education, the wisdom that I've gleaned, you know through trials in life and all of that. But it's up to you whether or not you're going to use what I'm sharing with you to be able to evaluate your life and say okay, wait, do I need to change my perception About this? Do I need to change my perception about going back to school? Do I need to change my perception about writing that book, opening that business, starting a new career? Do I need to change my perception? Maybe your perception now is okay, I'm too old, or it's too late, or you can't do it. All these other things that comes up that actually prevents us from moving forward. Here you're listening to this podcast or any other podcast that begins to shape and change the way you see things. That's what's really important.
Speaker 2:I want you to know that everybody is after your mind. It's after your mind. What do I mean by that? Whether it's the commercials that we see on the television or billboards, they're after your mind. Mcdonald's wants you to believe that you need to get there. You need to get the McDonald's fries and the burgers and everything else. Burger King, they want you to know that. Guess what? You can have it your way. Maybe the billboards for alcohol wants you to believe that, hey, listen, just drinking, getting a glass of wine or some alcohol, that'll make things better. Whatever it is, they're after your mind. It'll cause you to think away. That will benefit them. Counselors or therapists are after your mind to help you think in a way that will benefit you.
Speaker 2:You have to begin to look at the people that's in your life and see what are their motives. Are they after my mind so they can control me, so they can get what they want for their own best interests, or are they after my mind to help me grow? Because in any relationship, the only way the relationship will be successful is if both people are A taking care of self-first and B cultivating the relationship with the other person. If you're in any relationship where it seems lopsided, one-sided, you have to sit back and evaluate Without asking for permission. You have to sit back and evaluate is this working for me Now? If it's working for you, then it's not a problem. But if it's not working for you, if you find yourself irritated, frustrated, depressed, anxious, sad, if you find yourself in this space more often than not, you have to give yourself permission To shift. You have to give yourself permission to shift.
Speaker 2:So again, even as I went to this illusion museum, it was so awesome as we took pictures and we, being in there, knew where everybody was and how it was. But after we took the picture and did some things to the picture, it made it seem like a person was literally sitting in this big chair. That's the power of perception you literally can be seeing life wrong, like literally. You can be seeing life in a way that can actually hinder you from moving forward. Imagine this Imagine that you are living your life going a long distance and after months, years of going in that direction, you realize you was going the wrong way. Imagine that Months, years going in one direction only to realize you were going the wrong way. That good distance, but it took you further and further away from your goal.
Speaker 2:I encourage each of you to allow self-assessment to be a part of your routine. It can be monthly, quarterly, definitely yearly, where you sit back and just evaluate the last three months and see what adjustments need to be made, whether they're physical adjustments maybe I need to get into the gym. Whether there's financial adjustments maybe I need to not go out to the restaurants and eat so much. Maybe it's emotional adjustments. Maybe I need to seek a house and get in therapy. You're the only one that can sit and assess what you need.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes, we're good at making sure everyone else needs our meds. We're great at showing up for everyone else, but then, when it's time for us to show up for ourselves, we're out of gas, we're out of steam, we're tired, we're burned out, and it's not fair. It's not fair to you, nor the people that you love. And so this self-care program journey is not a group of people putting something together who had nothing to do. This is a group of people who realize the lack of self-care, yet understanding that it's the most important thing, because if we do not care for ourselves, it's going to be hard for us to truly show up for everyone else. Or maybe, when you're looking over your life, you realize the people you showed up for. They're prospering, they seem happy, they're living their best life, and when you sit back and look at yourself, you realize that you haven't taken care of yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually or mentally. And so, yeah, you may get the claps and the cheers from individuals that you have helped, but at what cost? At what cost?
Speaker 2:I understand what it's like to want to help people, especially those that are hurting, what we call the underdogs, but at the end of the day, I can't be so busy helping everyone else and fail to help myself. And sometimes helping ourselves is going to seek help. What do you think about that? And helping ourselves is actually going to seek help. Going to counseling, going to a mentor? Because you know you may be stuck and we all have blind spots. All of us can use a guide to help us adjust our lenses.
Speaker 2:So, when we're talking about the power of perception, I want you to be able to sit back and see am I seeing this correctly or is what I'm seeing really what it is? Is this pain here to destroy me or alert me? Why is this pain here? Is this heaviness here to overwhelm me or to make me aware? Why is it here? These are very important questions. If we pause and just listen to our bodies, listen without judgment, asking ourselves a question when we have in big emotions, how do I know that I'm tired? What is my body doing? Is it tense? Is it a tingling sensation? What's happening? How do I know when I'm frustrated, when I'm irritated, what is actually happening? Is it something I'm telling myself Really taking the time to pause and to get to know you. Get to know you Because you're just as important as everyone else, as anyone else.
Speaker 2:Taking the time to care for you may require a perception change, because some people will make you think that taking care of you is selfish. Oh yeah, they'll make you think you're selfish for taking care of you, for choosing you for once. And I'm saying it's not selfish, it's wise. It's wise Because if you're taking care of them and they're taking care of them, who's taking care of you? Think about that You're taking care of them, they're taking care of them. Who's taking care of you?
Speaker 2:And so, when you find yourself in a tight place, in a dark place, in a sad, frustrating, depressed place, be still, be still. And I've had experiences where I would be still in. The answers that I needed came to me. I didn't go searching, I just allowed myself to be still, and the answers came. I knew I had to sever contracts, I knew I had to break off relationships. I knew that it was no longer serving me or able to go with me in the next season that I was going into.
Speaker 2:So here's the challenge for you. The challenge is for you before you start your day that you would take, and you can start off with five minutes, ten minutes where you just lay there, you're not thinking, allowing your mind to kind of race all over the place, but being intentional. You lay there, sit there wherever you find yourself, and you just notice what's happening, notice how your body is feeling, just notice, notice any thoughts that's popping up, don't judge it, just notice them. You start off doing it five minutes and then you'll go to ten minutes and the goal is to get to at least 20 minutes a day where you're just sitting, pausing and just being aware, keenly aware, of what's going on with you Body, soul and spirit. Thank you for listening. Again. I'm LaShiana Alfred and I'll talk with you next time. That concludes this week's episode.
Speaker 1:And remember, it's not selfish, it's self-care.