Episode 691: 5 Powerful Gifts That Are Yours (If You’re Willing to Receive Them) (Mindset & Self-Care)

EBT691 – 5 Powerful Gifts That Are Yours (If You’re Willing to Receive Them)

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

[00:00:33]   

Hello food Bloggers. So happy to have you here on this mindset and self care focused episode of Eat Blog Talk. Thank you for joining me. And now we are doing video for mindset episodes, so thank you for joining for those. I hope you love it. In today’s episode we’re going to talk about five powerful gifts that are yours if you are willing to receive them.

[00:00:54]   

 I hope you are so let’s get into it. The other day I was feeling really frustrated with my body. I have been dealing with some issues recently with my body just not liking some of the foods I’ve been eating. Through the process of elimination, I’ve discovered that my body reacts negatively all of a sudden to soybean oil, which I’ve been intentionally steering clear of in recent months to avoid all the negative stuff that comes from eating it.

[00:01:24]   

 At first I thought this was only an ingredient that was used in crappy restaurants like fast food restaurants. But slowly I’ve learned the very hard way that soybean oil is in a lot of packaged store bought goods as well. One day recently I ate a bunch of deli meat leftover from my retreat.

[00:01:44]   

 The next day. Ugh. It was awful. A few days later I devoured some crackers that were in our pantry. The next day. Ugh again. Ever since I have been very carefully reading every single label before eating a single bite of anything. So after reading the label on some Trader Joe’s Rye crisps, it looked like everything was safe for me because there was no soybean oil.

[00:02:10]   

 A few hours later, however, something was not right in my body. My body started going through the same set of symptoms it does when I consume soybean oil. So it was the headache, just stomach kind of weirdness, body aches. I get really tired and feel very heavy. I went back and I re-read those dang ingredients a dozen times and no soybean oil.

[00:02:38]   

 What the heck? Is there something else my body doesn’t like all of a sudden? At first this was supremely frustrating. I literally felt nothing but frustration. The following day I had an epiphany. My body is communicating with me. Thank goodness. It’s giving me signals about not liking certain foods and certain ingredients. If it didn’t talk to me in this way, I may never know.

[00:03:05]   

 And who knows, it could be totally wrecking my insides. These symptoms, although they do not feel good, they’re a gift. They are what allows me to keep investigating and figuring out optimal foods to put on my body and foods to keep out of my body. I was able to flip the script completely and started thanking my body for talking to me.

[00:03:30]   

 I swear the moment I started doing this, I had clarity about what to avoid earlier in the day. The same day I’d eaten those rye crisps, I also had a protein bar, so it was kind of questionable which of the two food items my body was reacting to. But when I sincerely saw the uncomfortable symptoms as a gift instead of a curse, I knew it was the rye crisps that had caused everything.

[00:03:56]   

 Still not sure which ingredient in the rye crisps, but to be continued on that, I’ll figure it out Life constantly presents us with gifts that we overlook. We tend to focus on what’s missing, what’s hard, what’s frustrating. But what if we shifted our perspective and truly received the gifts we are given every single day?

[00:04:18]   

 In today’s episode, we are going to talk through five gifts that are sitting right in front of you. By the end of the episode, you will start seeing life through a completely different lens. A lens of gratitude and appreciation for all the gifts that flood into your life every single day. Okay, let’s talk about what the five gifts are. 

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[00:05:38]  Megan Porta 

Gift one the words people say to you I’m starting with possibly the toughest subject because so many of us, myself definitely included here, reject the words that people say to us. We’re either offended or angry or disappointed in what words are thrown in our direction. For me, this happens on a daily basis.

[00:06:05]   

 I would say I will carry something a friend said to me through my entire day and stew over it, wonder about the intent behind it, never taking the time to think about the fact that whatever words were said to me that they were likely spoken with good intentions. And even if the intentions were critical or mean or rude, they’re still a gift that was given to me.

[00:06:28]   

 Every word spoken to you, whether it’s kind, neutral or critical, is a gift. Encouraging words lift you up and remind you of your value. Constructive criticism, even though it might be really hard to hear, challenges you to grow and become a better human, or at least give you the knowledge that you need better people in your life.

[00:06:48]   

 Even small talk can be a gift. Connection in any form is such a beautiful thing. Sometimes words from others arrive at just the right moment, nudging you in a new direction or confirming something deep inside of you. So instead of dismissing words or taking them personally, receive them with curiosity and ask yourself, what is this teaching me?

[00:07:11]   

 I have a challenge for you on this point. Today, I challenge you to be fully present when someone speaks to you. Absorb their words as if they are a gift. Even if they’re hard words to hear. What message are you meant to hear from their words? Gift number two the challenges you face.

[00:07:36]   

 Okay, never mind on gift number one being the most challenging one. This one has to be the most challenging because challenges are challenging and often they cause major resistance. Speaking for myself here, seeing anything good in the face of challenges might be the hardest thing to do ever. It’s so much easier to look back in time once the challenge has passed and see the good things that have come from it.

[00:08:03]   

 I remember so clearly the moment we found out about our oldest son Elijah’s heart issues. Before he was even born, my brain had turned to total mush. It felt like the world was crashing down around us. I was confused, hurt, devastated, sad, disappointed, frustrated, mad. You name the negative feeling or emotion and I promise you I was feeling it.

[00:08:28]   

 If someone would have jumped into that scene at that moment and said, hey Megan, this challenge you’ve just been faced with, it’s actually a gift. See it as a gift. Come on, you can do it. Yeah, that would not have gone over with me very well at that moment. I think that’s how it goes for most of us and with most challenges, especially if they’re big.

[00:08:48]   

 But what if we practice by seeing gifts in the small challenges? Life throws obstacles into our paths every single day, both big and small. Instead of viewing these things as annoyances, what if we start seeing them as opportunities? Here are some gifts challenges can offer you. They help you grow, stretch yourself in new ways that you need to.

[00:09:11]   

 They help you develop resilience. Without challenges, you would never get wiser or stronger. Every single setback, every frustration or moment of discomfort is shaping you into a better human. Think about the most challenging moments of your life. Weren’t they also the ones that transformed you the most? Even small daily challenges, like being in a traffic jam or having a tech issue or having a difficult conversation, can be a gift in disguise.

[00:09:41]   

 All of these things teach us patience, how to be more adaptable, and how to be more grateful. Here’s my challenge for this point. The next time something frustrating happens to you today or this week, pause and ask yourself, what gift might this challenge be offering me? 

Number three, Every person you encounter, do you tend to see people as mostly a frustration or annoyance or a pleasure and a gift? People can be so messy and judgmental and irritating and frustrating, right? I know it’s hard to see in the moment, but all of those seemingly negative things people bring to the table, all of them can be gifts as well. If you change your perspective. Every single person who crosses your path today is a gift, whether they bring joy, challenge, or insights.

[00:10:38]   

 A loved one might remind you that you are deeply cared for. A stranger might offer a simple kindness that brightens your day. Even difficult people can be gifts, I promise. They teach us patience. They teach us boundaries and self awareness and self control. After my whole food sensitivity debacle and training myself to see my body’s symptoms as a gift, the next place I turned to was people.

[00:11:02]   

 I don’t know about you, but I go through periods of time, usually when I’m tired, when people just start bugging me. Here’s one example. My son Elijah is on the autism spectrum. I think I’ve mentioned that before. He said something to one of his teachers recently out of frustration that he shouldn’t have and he didn’t mean.

[00:11:25]   

 Later, he felt extreme remorse about what he’d said. So he took the time to sit down and make this really sweet drawing and apology letter. It was really cute. He rolled it up into this lovely little scroll and he put it on his teacher’s desk. The teacher let it sit on his desk for a week and didn’t say a thing about it to Elijah.

[00:11:47]   

 Every day, Elijah would see it still sitting in the same place. He’d set it down and assume that the teacher didn’t care or that he hadn’t read it, that his efforts didn’t matter, that he wasn’t important. He came up with all these stories in his head. After a while, I started to think how rude this was.

[00:12:04]   

 So I sent this teacher an email, because that’s what I do. I told him how I felt in a very nice way. He wrote back and said that he actually had looked at the drawing and note and that he really loved it. He hadn’t had a chance to tell Elijah about it yet.

[00:12:22]   

 I still think this is a little weird that he hadn’t mentioned anything to Elijah. But turn my perspective around anyway. Elijah has absolutely loved the class this teacher has taught this year. He worked his butt off doing things in this class that were way outside of his skill level and comfort zone. I was so proud of him.

[00:12:43]   

 He hand stitched an entire pair of mittens with his own little two hands. This is the same kid who cannot write more than a paragraph without getting hand fatigue. Whatever this teacher’s reaction to Elijah’s drawing was, it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that he’s been a gift to our kid, which means he’s also been a gift to other kids, I’m sure.

[00:13:05]   

 So that’s the first thing I pull up in my head as soon as I think about him. Now he’s a gift. What if you treated every person as though they had something valuable to offer you today? Every interaction you have holds the potential to shape you in some way. My challenge you on this point is today, approach every person as if they are a special guest in your life.  How does that shift your energy within your interactions?

[00:13:32]   

Gift number four. The quiet moments. I get into grooves where I don’t even notice the quiet moments. I don’t know if you can relate to this. I’ll get through an entire day or even more, an entire week sometimes, and think, oh my gosh, everything was a complete blur.

[00:13:51]   

 One of my values for this year is to slow down and experience and savor life’s joys with this at the top of my mind every day. Because I read through my goals and values every morning to stay on track. I’m on the lookout for those quiet moments. And guess what? When I look for them, I find them.

[00:14:15]   

 When I’m super busy with a packed schedule that doesn’t allow me to breathe. I don’t find them. And when I notice those quiet moments, it’s like I’ve just received the most precious gift in the world. I have trained myself to stop and appreciate and express gratitude for the gift. In this world filled with so much noise, so much movement and distraction, quiet is a rare and precious gift.

[00:14:44]   

 These moments allow you to think, process, reset, and simply just be. Your best ideas can come from the quiet moments. Quiet moments allow you to reconnect with yourself and find clarity. This is a massive gift. We can so often avoid the quiet moments, filling them with screen time, scrolling other distractions. But what if instead we embraced them as sacred?

[00:15:14]   

 A few seconds of deep breathing, a moment of stillness in your car, waiting to pick up the kids after school. Pausing before answering someone. These are gifts of peace in this crazy busy world of ours. My challenge for you on this point today is to notice the quiet moments in your day as you go through it.

[00:15:36]   

 Instead of rushing past them, lean into them. What do they reveal to you? Gift number five, your physical body. Wrapping up these gifts with your physical body, the thing that literally inspired this entire episode. Our bodies are literally miracles in motion. If you stop and think about all the things our bodies do, and not just sometimes, but constantly, you will become overwhelmed with gratitude.

[00:16:12]   

 The complex functions going on inside, the fact that they’re always fending off disease, communicating from organ to organ and system to system, letting you know when something is wrong. It’s a freaking miracle. Your body is constantly working for you, even when you are not even thinking about it. When you’re sleeping all the time.

[00:16:34]   

 It breathes, digests, moves, heals, and supports you every moment of every day. It is so easy to criticize our bodies. Wishing they looked different, felt different, performed better, felt stronger. But what if we saw them as the ultimate gift instead? Just think about all the things your body allows you to do. It allows you to hug people you love.

[00:16:59]   

 It allows you to taste delicious food, smell delicious scents, experience the feel of sun on your face and your skin, laugh until your stomach hurts, and move through your day no matter what. Even if you have health struggles, there’s always something to appreciate about your body. The fact that your heart’s beating, you’re breathing without even knowing that you’re breathing.

[00:17:30]   

 All of your senses are engaging all the time. Instead of focusing on what your body is not doing properly from your perspective, focus on what it is. A true gift that lets you experience this world. My challenge for you on this point. Take one moment today to express gratitude for your amazing body.

[00:17:52]   

 Maybe that means taking a few deep breaths and appreciating your lungs, or stretching and thanking your muscles. Or even just place your hand on your heart and recognize its steady rhythm. Your body is truly a gift. Receive it fully today. That’s all I have for you in this episode. Let’s conclude and recap.

[00:18:15]   

 The world is constantly offering us gifts, but most of us are too busy or too distracted to notice today. This episode is your invitation to slow down and just receive what’s already present in your life. These gifts, words, challenges, people, quiet moments and your body are always with you. The more you notice them, the richer and more fulfilling your life will feel.

[00:18:40]   

 And I have a final challenge for you. Pause right now and name one unexpected gift that you have received today. Just hold onto that for a moment and let it fill you with so much gratitude. Speaking of gratitude, I’m so grateful for you. Thank you for being here and I cannot wait to see you again next week. 

Outro 

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.