#55 One Year Anniversary
We are having our first live event tonight, Thursday, July 20th, at 6pm at the Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles. It’s first come first serve with limited seating so please try to be there by 5:30pm! We are celebrating our first year of the podcast and honoring the 44th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s passing, come join us for this historic occasion.
This episode marks our one-year anniversary for the podcast! We created this podcast to honor and celebrate Bruce Lee's philosophy and share it with the world. Thank your for listening and going on this journey with us.
We wanted to celebrate the one-year anniversary and recognize the 44th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s passing by completing the Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge for two weeks. When we shared the challenge, we worried that people might not participate, but so many of you completed it. We got such an overwhelming response to the challenge that it’s taking us much longer to go through all the entries, and we won’t be able to pick just one winner. Your accomplishments, roadblocks, and leveling up have truly astounded and moved us; you blew us out of the water. We applaud you Bruce Lee Podcast Community!
Since we can’t pick just one winner, over the coming weeks we will pick several winners. Each winner will receive the prize, a conversation with us, and a chance to be on the podcast. Even if you don’t win the prize, we read so many wonderful Bruce Lee moments you should stay tuned into future episodes because you might hear your name on the podcast as our Bruce Lee moment.
Shannon and Sharon both did the Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge, and shared their experiences on this episode.
Shannon’s Affirmations:
1) “Be”: Rather than striving for some perfect expression, or impression, in each moment I will simply be. I can fill the space with my energy by radiating my being-ness because I am enough as I am.
2) “Natural Action”: Knowing that I am easily tired by forceful actions, when I do act I will take the most organic and natural route for my soul, so that I may flow with rather than against my own stream.
3) “Intention”: Knowing that my soul is fed when I am purposeful, I will imbue my actions and plans with meaningful intentions, so that no matter what I am doing, whether resting or working etc., I am doing so with deliberate awareness.
These three affirmations work together. Shannon used all of the action items together, the “I’d feel better in my body if…” and “Letting others be,” and they became affirmations as well.
Shannon initially found her affirmation of “Intention” difficult to do because she would find herself accidentally being thoughtless or procrastinating. She found that reading her affirmations immediately made her feel better and as time went on she felt her consciousness kick in more. Shannon became more aware of her affirmations working on her as the days progressed—they would pop up more in her consciousness, and learnings would soon follow.
For example, Shannon had moments in meetings where she felt that she should be talking more, but then her affirmations came to mind and she practiced just being and emanating energy. Her active listening was a “natural action.”
These affirmations reawakened in Shannon her desire to write, and during the challenge she started writing exercises, and plans to continue writing.
Shannon’s second action item was “I’ll feel better in my body if I meditate everyday.” She credits the daily meditation with giving her a lot of mental clarity and being able to engage more in the process of the podcast challenge.
She also had a second one: “I’ll feel better in my body if I were to slow down and eat more thoughtfully, and chew my food more thoroughly.” Shannon always had an issue with eating too quickly, and so she wanted to add mindfulness to her meals, and slow down. It took time to make that habit adjustment because she is usually thoughtless about how quickly she eats. Shannon noticed how much better she felt after eating when she slowed down and ate more thoughtfully.
After seeing the benefit of doing these actions consistently, Shannon has decided to keep doing them and is working on more affirmations.
Sharon’s Affirmations:
1) “I love my body! It’s the source of creativity, connection and outrageous pleasure!”
2) “I am so blessed. I am so loved by the love of my life. My children are healthy, happy and flourishing. I am free to create anything I want. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
3) “Today will be a day of abundance, magic and joy. All green lights and delights!”
These affirmations helped Sharon set the tone for her day. She noticed that she used to bolt out of bed in the mornings, but taking a pause to read her affirmations helped her have better energy all day. Sharon used her first two affirmations to ground herself in love and gratefulness, and her third affirmation added a magic sparkle to her day. She noticed that she liked that sparkle energy and it made her happier through the day.
During this challenge, Sharon noticed that she spent more time in the sparkle magic space all day instead of compartmentalizing her energies. Her taskmaster mentality used to be how she powered through her busy days, but during this challenge Sharon’s days became more integrated and easy. She still got to where she needed to go, but wasn’t efforting as hard, and the quality and experience was more joyful. This energy shift works for both the mundane and the epic, you just have to connect to the easy flow.
Sharon’s second action item of “I would feel better in my body if…” was based off a quote by Michael Pollan: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Sharon adjusted the quote to be personal to her: “Eat delicious food, mostly plants. Taste each bite and enjoy!” This action item helped connect Sharon to her affirmation about her body. Eating slowly enhanced the pleasure of eating delicious food and it was exciting for Sharon to seek out delicious foods. Focusing on the pleasure of deliciousness made it easy to cut out meat from her diet. Her other action item was “Move my body once a day in a joyous way!” She let herself be guided by the joy, whether it was grooving to some music or going for a long walk. This shifted her daily exercise from a “task" to a “desire."
All of Sharon’s action items were written joyously, but they weren’t originally. She found that the straightforward ways they were written at first didn’t resonate with her or excite her. Sharon learned that she liked the rhyme, the sparkle, the joy, and it helped bring everything into action easier. The poetic words created energy that fueled her actions without much effort. She intends on continuing her affirmations and action items.
Both Shannon and Sharon noticed that their affirmations were linked to their “I’ll feel better in my body if…” action items and that everything worked together.
Just the small structure that this podcast challenge created allowed for some really life changing experiences.
Harmony action item: “Letting others be.”
The last action item of “Letting others be,” was challenging and illuminating.
Sharon noticed that she was able to easily turn off the judgments and mini rants in her brain with a gentle reminder like, “Ok, that’s enough, let’s move on.” Such a simple phrase was very effective at stopping the negative momentum. The daily reminder of letting others be prevented her from building up too much steam.
Shannon always tries to practice harmony, but noticed several things when she was more conscious about it. She noticed she really wanted to assess the truth of something. For example, sarcastic humor--“Is that me just being funny or is there an edge that is unkind?” This action also helped her assess her own intentions on communication. For example—do I want to say this for the greater good for all involved or do I just want to complain and air my grievances?"
You expend energy when you judge, rant and rave, so when you minimize those thoughts, you actually conserve energy. When you get anxious and stressed about other people’s choices you amp yourself up into a frenzy of negative energy. If you just turn the volume down and let them be, you can save energy and feel better. Just meditating on the simple idea of letting others be provides you with great relief and freedom. We’re honored that you are listening, participating and growing with Bruce Lee’s wisdom. Thank you for co-creating this show with us.
Much love, Shannon & Sharon
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