Season 2: Episode 32 - Unleash Your Inner Champion

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to the Joy-Inspired Podcast. I'm Nikki Cruz, and I'm thrilled to explore with you what it means to walk in a faith-infused business. This is your space to find powerful tools and insights, to build with resilience, and to create impact through your unique purpose, discovering a joy that only God can provide. Together, let's embrace a business journey anchored in faith and empowered by joy. Let's jump in. Well, hello, amazing people, and welcome back to another episode of the Joy-Inspired Podcast. Yes, I am Nikki Cruz, the Joy Junkie, here to cheer you on as you build your businesses with more joy, more passion, more purpose. But you know what? You can't do that unless you have the right mindset. And if you're just striving to continually have the right mindset, you might begin to get exhausted. So I am super excited to be introducing you to our guest today because she's the founder of the Mental Fitness Edge. Our guest today, Karen Burnet Natraj, is amazing. Yes, her name is not easy to pronounce, but I did get it right there. So she is going to be talking to us about, guess what? If that's what she's the founder of, mental fitness. And she has a whole history behind her that backs up this mental fitness because it's not just from mental fitness, but she's got quite a history of physical fitness. She's done things I wouldn't even dream of doing. So, Karen, in all of this, I am so happy to have you here to help us see things from a different perspective because we get so fatigued mentally. Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Nikki. Thank you for having me. So I'm so excited to be here with you and hopefully inspire your audience.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Oh, I know you will because I've heard you talk before and I was privileged to have you on my summit. And you spend a lot of time helping people build mental fitness. If I bumped into you in a coffee shop and asked, what exactly is mental fitness? How would you explain it?

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Ah, I love that. So mental fitness really is the ability, it's having your ability to have a positive mindset rather than a negative mindset. And if we pay attention to our minds, it's usually a negative mindset. Yeah. It's that inner critic, it's that saboteur, it's that judgment, that's all that stuff that goes on because our mind is so active.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Oh, it is. And especially in the world today, I think we find it easier to just mix with the crowd and be negative along with everybody else instead of going against the grain. That's right. One thing that stood out to me from your application was that your own journey hasn't been easy. You didn't come out of the womb going, I'm gonna be positive, I'm mentally fit. You shared about leaving a toxic relationship and beginning a journey of discovering who you really are. Can you take us back there?

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Absolutely. So um, where do I want to start with that? So, yes, I was in a very toxic relationship. I came from the mindset. I'm I'm young, okay? I'm in my 20s, and um taking on the world and wanting to fix the world and make everybody happy. Well, I thought fell into this dream that I thought ended up being a very narcissist toxic relationship. And so I kept that a really tight secret because I had my three kids and I wasn't gonna tell anybody because I was gonna make it work until that night he threw a beer mug at me and split my head open. That's when I had to say the nurse goes, Karen, uh, so what happened? And that was the first time in six years I told anybody what happened. And I had this secret inside of me holding it in because I was gonna fix it. Well, then the next day I was driving down back to town from work in a complete daze until the sirens and the red lights shining in my car. I pull over, looking that I was going 85 in a 55 mile an hour zone. I'm thinking, well, of course you're gonna get a ticket. When he I rolled the window down and he walked up to my window and he said, ma'am, I broke. I started bawling and I couldn't stop. It was like that volcano in my body that just erupted, and I couldn't stop crying. I handed him my stuff, he handed me a warning.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

He was afraid to give me a ticket.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

And so it was like after that, it was like, you know, I don't know, I knew what I was doing, I was gonna go get a restraining order, and but I didn't know what was gonna happen, and this what was gonna happen after that, but I knew I needed to do something. And when we realize in our lives this isn't right, and we need to make a change, just go with your gut, and I did, and I made that change, and then I started reading books because I was wondering what about me and why am I doing this and why so learning about me, and that opened the door to bring me to where I am today, and it's just power, it was powerful on the essence that so many people stay stuck because they're gonna fix it or they're gonna they're afraid or they're scared. Of course we are, of course I was. I was alone, I was frightened, I had no one to talk to except the nurse or the policeman.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

So but I didn't, and so when we when you listen to your heart, it's right, it's absolutely right, and I think that's such a powerful thing that keeps our mindset stuck is fear. Oh, for sure, and and you freeze in that, yep, and you don't see possibilities, you don't see potential, and you describe that season as one that changed the trajectory of your life, obviously, right? But what shifted inside you that really made those circumstances uh change. So before the circumstances changed, what gave you the courage to stand up against that fear?

SPEAKER_00 7:16

You know, um I'm gonna say, as I've gone on this journey, I discovered there's a knowing inside of myself of the right of our own happiness. Happiness isn't not putting a happy face on our when we I saw this at home. My mom did this. She was yelling at my sister and I, and my aunt would show up and she put on a happy face. That is not happiness. Happiness is that, like you say, that joy, inspired joy that's inside of us. And so that was deep in my soul, wanting to come out, and it was that breaking moment that kind of woke it up. And so I knew that I had the right to be happy because I created that belief when I was five years old. Oh wow. And so, and so I did not realize that belief, you know, until I opened up and I took, but you said something on the fear that holds us stuck if we don't take an action, and that's that action is scary. It's the scariest thing you could do, but that's what that's what how we grow is by taking that action, knowing, hey, this isn't right anymore. Yeah, it's not right, it doesn't speak to me, it's not what I want, and afraid I'm gonna be alone, I'm gonna back to a single mom, blah, blah, blah. But you know what? When you open up to that possibility, it's waiting for us to show up because it's in us.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

You know, I have a crazy picture in my head now. Yes, it's another one of those crazy Nicky images. Because I see this image of you at that point standing on a cliff, and the cliff is crumbling underneath you, and you want to jump off and fly, but you're scared that you'll fall if you fly. But if you don't jump off to try and fly, it's crumbling anyway. You're gonna fall anyway, and that fear will lead to your demise because you will fall. Whereas if you jump to fly, what's the worst that can happen? You can fall. If you stay where you are, you'll fall. So there's a crazy Nikki image. But you know, you have you have come so far. And folks, you heard what she said, and you know what we always say: joy is what transcends your circumstances, and it's never lost. She knew it was inside her, it just needed a bit of dusting up and getting room to be able to grow and bloom, and that's the difference. Fear suffocates joy, it really does. So it really does. So true, so true. But amongst the other amazing things that you've done since then is you're an ultra-distance athlete. And uh I found those endurance uh sports uh teach incredible life lessons. Not that I participate in too many of them, but I do appreciate the value that they bring to people. So what is running? Tell us a bit about your running and what it's taught you about leadership.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

So I want to I want to tap back into when I was a little girl. So I used to, we lived in a house in Covina, California, which is east of LA, and behind me was Rolling Hills, and I had that curiosity of what was on the other side of that hill. As a child, we had that curiosity, we have that ability to fall in love with life and be connected with nature, and I had that. Well, that got squashed as I grew older. Well, then that came and brought itself back to me, and I got into cycling and fell in love with that, and then I started running. And now, yes, I'm an ultra-distance athlete. I ran almost 50 hundred-mile runs. I attempted a 250-mile run this year, and we'll I can talk about that a little bit, but it was the curiosity child part of me that is like, what can I do? And I tell you, that's my my tagline is who would have known? Who would have known? And the other part of that is that's where people do not step into their fullest potential. I am not saying that you have to run the hundred miles, it's just that's my land of curiosity. But it also proves that it also shows us, proves it that if I stayed stuck in that world, I would never be stepping into my potential. And so many people are stuck, like just like you said, in that fear. We're not stepping into our potential. What's our potential? And so my potential is at my age and where I'm going, I'm gonna keep running 100 milers. I took on a 250-mile run and I didn't finish it, and that's okay. There were physical things that went wrong. But the mindset is okay, now I have to learn from that. Let's go back and try it again. As where many people sitting in fear are like, well, I'm never doing that again. I must be a failure. I can't do this. That's where curiosity comes. Bring back your child, bring back the child that's in you. It's like as a kid, you were so curious of something. You were.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

And you know, I love you said something so good there. Said a lot of good things, but the one thing that really hit me was you didn't finish it, but it doesn't mean you failed, right? If you've attempted something, how can you have failed it? And the fear, you know, a lot of you might be sitting here listening and going, but I've never been in a toxic relationship. That's not what's holding me back. No, but you have preconceived ideas, and what I often say to people is you may never have been in the wheelchair like I was, but what's crippling your thought process? What's crippling, crippling your self-belief and holding you back? Because you get to stand out of that, you get to step forward. And well, what if you fall? Well, then you get up and you try again, but you're not gonna know what's out there, and curiosity is so beautiful. That playful, childlike attitude that you have, Karen, brings so much joy, you know why? Because there's freedom in it, because it stands beyond other people's judgment or criticism. And you know, you must have learned so many leadership lessons in the process of that, because I've heard you talk about them, and I know one of the greatest things there is when you are running and when you are cycling, yeah, there are other people in the race, but who are you really competing with? You're doing your best. So you have to lead yourself in.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

You know, one of your one of your questions suggested comparing mental fitness with physical fitness. Now people are starting to go, oh uh, we're not gonna, she doesn't expect us all to be these super athletes, does she? Nobody expects anything of you. What do you expect of yourself? Right, but here are some parallels that Karen can give you.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

So based on the neuroscience of all this and the mental fitness side of it, it's compared to physical fitness. So, no, you don't have you're not at my level of fitness, and and but there are people who are even beyond me. But there's so many people that want to get healthy. So they go to the gym, and you want to go to the gym or you want to do a yoga class or a little fitness class, which is perfect, or start walking. You don't go out there and do one walk and say, Okay, I'm fit for life. You don't go to the gym and you do a bunch of different little different weights for different parts of your body, and like, I'm strong for life. And there you have it. It's the same with mental fitness. It takes repetition, it takes practice. Now tell I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I love cycling. And my girlfriend and I decided to run a marathon. I ran one mile. I'm like, oh my goodness, this sucks. And then I said, I was like, this is the stupidest thing I could ever have done. But I said, no, I'm gonna keep running because we were gonna do the marathon together. And it's like, okay, I have to do this till I love it. Well, now, you know, hundreds of thousands of miles later. But it's the ability to mental fitness is taking the tools that I teach that I'm that I share with a lot of my athletes and my leaders on doing daily mental fitness exercises to bring you in the present moment. Because if you think about this, think about it, but how often are you either in the past regretting this? I should have done that, oh my gosh, how can I fix that? Or in the future, worrying about this, worrying about that, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, overwhelm, procrastination, how up your achiever, controlling something. When are you ever in the present moment? Because all that doesn't really exist, because that's already done, the past is already done. The future, you have no idea what's going to happen in the next minute, the next minute, the next minute. All we have is at this moment. And so we have to retrain our brain to stop and be in the present moment. And a lot of that we can just focus on our body. That's it. Because that's the thing that carries you every single day, right? And so there's a lot of tools that I teach um my clients on just being in that present moment. And what happens is that you're building the muscles in your brain to get out of that amygdala stress-free fight or flight thought process into the prefrontal cortex, which is your empathy circuitry. And you end up just responding in life instead of reacting in life. And so when you practice, you can do 10 seconds throughout the day, 10 seconds six times a day. That's building your mental fitness, and over time you're creating a new habit. And when you create those new habits, your brain shifts.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

And you know, we all know that if we want to be healthy, we get to exercise, we get to do all those things, but we ignore cultivating healthy thought processes and a healthy mindset. And I see why you are pointing out that it gets to be intentional, because you know what, yes, you have to get up and walk around your house to get your food, but you don't have to get up and exercise your brain if you don't want to, and you don't have to exercise it on the right things. So, what you're saying there is so important, so important because uh yep, uh we've been talking a lot about late lately about self-mastery. Well, if there's a basketball player, he may not necessarily have this great acumen to play basketball perfectly, or he may have, but it depends on his practice as to whether he achieves anything with it, because you can be gifted with something, so you may have been gifted with a wonderful life, so you think I can think happy thoughts, but if you don't put into practice exercising positive thinking, intentional, positive mindsets that Karen's talking about, you know what? You don't exercise that like that basketball player who's naturally gifted, but he'll never make the NBA or whatever it's called.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

I'm not a big sports fan, so and I wanna I wanna comment on that. And I'm not I don't know names and I don't know we know Michael Jordan and we know, you know, but I don't but I've watched games and I watched I watch the players, and when they're the basketball players are at that point where they're doing their own free shot, whatever it's called. You guys can correct uh Nikki and I on our our our athletic uh you know professional word talking here, the words we're using. But anyway, I've watched a few of them and you can tell when they're they actually are become centered and focused. This one person would uh look at the ball, look at the hoop, and then he would shut his eyes and he had this breathing thing he did three times every time, and then he would look at the hoop and it would go in perfectly. So it's the ability at any point in time to become centered, and he was showing that immensely, and he would hit he would hit the hoop.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

I mean, he would he would put it in there, sink it, sink it, I think they call it. I think that for this episode we get to put a little bouncing bastard for the project, but but I think you guys all get what we're talking about, and it doesn't mean you have to be the best at anything, you have to be the best for yourself at it. And who doesn't want to live with the most positive, most possibilities open to them that you possibly can? And that's what this is all about. Mental fitness is not about being able to outrank anybody else, it's about uh being able to improve and self regulate for yourself, and that's where, as Karen said, you know, joy doesn't react, joy responds.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Very response. Well, I want to add something, one word to that is becoming the best version of yourself. Yep. That's what mental fitness is, is being the best of you can be. When we become the best me's, then our world opens up. Yeah. It just expands. It opens up for us. And it's just, it's it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

And for those of you who know, and I don't even know if Karen knows this, that that is one of the primary lines in any of my testimony stories. I sat in that wheelchair, mad with the world, mad with God, and eventually decided I was tired of being mad.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Good for you.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

And I turned around and said to God, okay, I will be the best version of me, whether I'm in a wheelchair or walking, because our circumstances don't define us. Yes. Our attitude and our response to it defines us. And when we start living in fear, we can't even begin to self-regulate. We can't even begin to be intentional about our thoughts and choosing what to reject. And you mention helping people overcome the mental demons that sabotage both performance and happiness. And boy, do those things sabotage both. We might think, oh, it's all right, I just won't be happy. But you know what? Your performance suffers. What is what are some of the most common mental patterns that you see, Karen?

SPEAKER_00 23:43

So many people are so stuck in. I can't do this. Everybody else is like that, but that's me. I'm not that good. Um, and the judgment of ourselves and the judgment of others, that comparison in life. Well, they're better than me, so therefore I can't. On the trail, you know, well, they're faster than me. I I'm not that good. I'm I don't think I can finish. And I I do have a powerful story of a hundred-mile run I did, and I passed somebody and I said, Come on, just stay with me. And I'm like, nah, I'm I'm I'm not trained for this, I shouldn't be out here, blah, blah, blah. And we self-sabotage. And you're self-sabotaging your happiness. Yes. And your joy. But you're self-sabotaging, and we don't have to, because the truth of who we are is we are the most powerful person. We can be the best version of ourselves that we choose to be. And if you tap back into that little child you were and be living in that empathy and curiosity in life and play as an adult, oh wow.

unknown 24:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Yeah. And and that passion is waiting to be released.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

It's waiting to be released, and you don't have to have an excuse for it, but you do have to have a mindset that makes space for it. Yep. And I know that you've shared in the past that you used to be terrified of well, maybe not terrified, but I think terrified of public speaking. Oh my gosh, that's just an understatement, Nikki. And now, Chair, you are. Look at how eloquently you you come across, you appear on screen, and it was one of your greatest challenges. Now you're coaching, speaking professionally. What happened that helped you overcome your fear?

SPEAKER_00 25:53

So I was sitting in a college course. Um I was a public speaking one, and I sat in the back of the room with sweaty palms hiding behind everybody, praying I didn't get picked, and I didn't get picked. I was scared to death, Nikki. I was like sweaty palmed. It would, I would rather go run a thousand miles, but public speaks. So when I became, it was when I became a coach, when I made that transition in my life from working for government and my kids grew up and left, they left their mom. They grew up. How dare them! But I saw a woman at an ICF lunch and learn, and she was the most inspiring little thing I ever saw, and I wanted to be like that. And I know it's inside of me. I want to be that powerful speaker standing on stage and having the audience go. And she helped me create my first speech, and it was on Zoom and because she lived on the East Coast, and I gave my uh running story, it's the Western State's 100-mile run to a running group. But every day I would imagine myself standing in front of that group and memorized my whole speech and um did it had the audience in well, the audience was runners, but I had them in tears. That was pretty powerful. And then, you know, as I get going, get going, and go and stay on stages and listening to great people like you and other great people, it's like I can be that. I can be there, and that's what I want to be because we all have a message, all of us, and it's that that little girl inside of me that just wants to go, hey everybody, and inspire the world.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

You know, even just in this short time on this podcast, the inspiration you folks are hearing and thinking and feeling, that would have been lost if that little girl hadn't come to light and stood up and said, I belong. Right, I belong, and each of you belongs. And if you're feeling a little bit sad, I'm gonna encourage you to just look at it differently. What is stopping you from being that best version of yourself? Because that is the mindset you get to challenge. And is it actually the truth? Because you got a little judge jumping up and down inside your head that's going, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, you're not good enough, you're not this, you're not that. And all of this is the kind of thing that Karen trains on, she teaches on, she helps people recognize because we have so much going on up here. Well, most people do. I'm I've got a little less than most, but no, we all have so much going on up here, and we don't even realize how little of it we are in control of. Yes. And that's where your mental fitness comes into play. You know, I have a I have a physician who I was so proud of myself. I'd lost weight, and I told him I'd lost weight, and he said, What did you do? And I looked at him and I said, I exercised more and ate less. And he said, I'm so pleased to hear that for a change. You don't need the fancy diets, you don't need all the rest. You just need to know what is nourishing your brain and what is starving your brain. And those different things, and I know this is Karen's area of specialty. We've got a lot of entrepreneurs listening today who aren't athletes and they're going, oh, I love this story, but how do I actually apply it to my business?

SPEAKER_00 30:10

How does this apply? Perfect. Because as I was going through this training from the mental fitness side of it, I was doing my business and I realized how many saboteurs were sabotaging me doing my business. And so many entrepreneurs are like, it has to be perfect. I know one person is like the website's not perfect. You are not making any money out there, you're focusing on your website, nobody's gonna look at it, but it has to be perfect. How many times did I do that? I I deleted stuff, I had to make it perfect. So the entrepreneurs are stuck on that perfection, they're stuck on going from one shiny object to the next and never finishing anything, and they're not, you know, making money. They have the saboteur showing up, they have the restless, the per the stickler, the perfectionist, the and so it's it's or the hyperachiever that um is constantly putting everything out there but not connecting with anybody. They put everything out there. I got all these things going on, nobody's talking because they're not putting their heart into it. They're not putting, it's all coming from the head. And I, when I realized how my um my stickler, my perfectionism showed up, and actually where that came from in my childhood, I'm like, okay, this is good enough. Let's just do it and have fun with it.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

You know, be creative, have fun. I mean, you're talking about saboteurs here, and people might be getting a little lost there, but the saboteurs are those different personas or personalities going on in your brain that do not serve you. It's a side of your brain that says, Oh, I have to be Mr. Businessman and Mr. Perfect. That's a saboteur. Then you've got the judge that says, Oh, look at you, you did that wrong. Tell us about some of the others. And where we find that place, yeah, shut them up.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

The inner critic, your judge is the main saboteur. It all starts with that thought, it's not good enough. And then the he the judge is so smart because he brings in these accomplished saboteurs, and those are the stickler, the perfectionist, the one who wants to control an avoider, a victim. Um, and so my perfectionism, first it's my common, my thought process is it's not very good, and then I have to make it perfect. So it takes it even further for us. And so none of those characters are good for you. They're not the truth of who you are. And so as we recognize that and you learn, so I that's what I teach in my boot camp. And so we can really recognize how those show up in our life because how it shows up in my life is different than how it shows up in anybody else's life. And I can see how it impacted performance, it impacts your well-being. So when you're stuck in that stress cycle, that impacts your health. Yeah, a lot of things happen inside of our body, and it's uh it's you could fall sick, you could come up with high blood pressure, you could come up with heart issues, you can come up with all sorts of stuff based on stress. Yeah, then um, it impacts your relationships because it really impacts the relationship you have with yourself as well as others.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

And you know, those we always think that you know, that's but that being perfect, having a bit of perfectionism serves me, well does it. Well does it, well does it, or being such a complacent person that gives everybody else credit and myself none, serves me, well does it. Love that, and I think that you really often get to stop looking at what the world has told you or your culture has told you. And I'll be honest, in the church, we are brought up to believe and to live lives that are not always very honoring to who God created us to be. Because very often they say, be quiet and just fit in. No, God made me the joy junkie. I'm allowed to be noisy, and he will find the right place for me to be noisy. If he made you the way you are, he will find the right place for you to express who you are. So don't be molded by everything else. And that is your judge sitting there eliciting all those other other sabotages to saboteurs to get you to walk away from your sage brain. And I convert this by saying take every thought captive, the way scripture tells you. Think on these things, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, don't just leave it there, question it, take it to God. And I'm going off on a bit of a mind bench here because I know some of you might be sitting there going, hang on a second, hang on a second, but you know what? This is so true, so real. God gave us these incredible minds. Let's honor Him with them. So thank you for that because that was a really good description. Okay, so now I want to get to know you a little better. So time for some fun before we wake up. What does success mean to you? Quick answer.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Um waking up every morning. Oh, I love that. And courage is uh courage is your is my ability to step out of fear and take that chance. And what is the best investment you've ever made? Leaving that relationship.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Oh wow, yes. Sometimes those things that that are not the financial investment, but the investment in ourselves are huge. And what's a book everyone should read?

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Um Nikki, I have a billion books, and I don't know if this is um it's Anita Moridon that's actually coming to my mind dying to be me. Oh I'm I'm not sure how that, but that's okay. But it for me the message is be me, you know, be your be your true self. And I do want to make a comment on what I said about getting out of that relationship. What came to my mind was I do not hold any anger or judgment or anything on that era. I've done that much healing on myself, and I'm grateful for that time in my life because if I didn't have that time in my life, I wouldn't be where here I where I am today. Yeah. And so I know that every choice we make takes us down a path, and when we make that choice, celebrate that choice, but celebrate it from your heart, not your mind.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

And that takes us to that beautiful concept of gratitude, because you know what? You wouldn't choose that if you were walking into it, right? But now that you've been there, you can turn it into the most positive thing possible for the experience you had. And so often we're not prepared to let go of the anger, the bitterness. Yeah, and we're not prepared to see the lesson and the growth in it. And I think that you I thank you for sharing that and adding that in because that is so important. You cannot move forward if you're holding on to what's behind you. You can't move forward, you've got to let go.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

Right. So, uh can I offer one thing? And this is really your our sage. You mentioned the word sage earlier, it is your inner wisdom, and so the sage perspective, which I absolutely love, because I can, and that's exactly what happened there, is that in any situation or circumstance, any situation or circumstance, there's a gift or opportunity. And sometimes we don't see it when we're in it, but when we can look back, there's a gift or opportunity. I can go back on my life many, many times and say, Well, of course I didn't know it. And you're not gonna think about that, but just if you have that, write that down and you just have that with you, and you just sort of bring it, and I'm not gonna say the word hope. I don't like hope, but it's just believe it and just be open to the possibilities of what is happening, you know, what's coming into your life. Because there is always a gift and opportunity every single moment. Yeah, and you've been my gift and opportunity, Nikki, for having me on your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Well, thank you. And some of you have heard some of this before because you know, I always say, ask yourself what is the gift. So can you share that? Karen and I we're in some similar programs, and you know what you learn and what you grow in is what you can share with others. And Karen, I'm just I what a great conversation. But before I even talk to you about our next precious gift that is not about the gift of your circumstance, I want to ask you, what brings you joy today in this season?

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Nikki, what brings me joy and what's been happening in my life lately is there's been these just amazing people that I've come across. My strongest value is connection. And I have had the opportunity over the last few months that people are just dropping into my life. That is like I sit there in awe on the caliber people and the connection I'm making, and just these interesting individuals that's sharing their story and connecting with my stories and just the synergy that goes on. And so I've just been um I sat, I did a 250-mile run. I told you I didn't finish it because I had physical problems and I had a massage, and that guy and I just sat on the table and we were just like in this bubble of conversation, and those things have been happening with me, and so that's what and that's the gift she was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

Yeah, she could have been so busy looking at the loss of not finishing and missed the gift, but there was the gift, and talking about gifts, I believe you have a gift for our audience. Now, those of you who are listening while you're driving, you don't need to start scrabbling around with one hand for a pen. These details will be in the show notes. So don't worry, Karen's details will be there, and the gift details will be there.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

Tell us about your gift, Karen. So unleas your inner champion. We have an inner champion, that's our inner sage, but we all have that inside of us, and so it it it'll it'll go deeper for you. You have the ability to look at how you're sabotaging, write about it. It's a little um ebook that you can write in, and then going into the sage powers. So, and then there's a link there that you can um get on my calendar and I can go deeper with you on it too.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Awesome, and that that is very generous of you because that is you know, when we can shift our mindset, it's not a free gift, that's a gift of huge value, untold wealth. So thank you very much for that. And the link to that will be in the show notes and in the comments. And if you got value out of this conversation today, please put a comment in. We'll be watching for them. Give it a thumbs up, subscribe, but most importantly, give somebody the else the gift of this wisdom by sharing it with them. So Karen, thank you so much. Any last words of wisdom for our audience?

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Um step into your sage. Step into your sage.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Yes, beautiful. Well, folks, I am so thrilled to know that you have heard some new stuff and a new approach to mindset today. And thank you, Karen, for joining us. And remember, when you let that little girl out, she can be bubbling all over the place or she can just be quietly happy. Joy doesn't look a certain way. Express it in the way you choose to express it. And remember how you think about yourself. It emulates out, it affects the atmosphere. So be happy with yourself, release that little girl, don't eat too many cookies, and join us next week for the next episode of the Joy Inspired Podcast. Blessings all. Bye-bye. Thank you so much for joining me on the Joy Inspired Podcast at www.joyinspiredpodcast.com. Make sure you hit that subscribe button so that you can get this and every other episode that comes out. We have lots of great stuff coming, and you don't want to miss it. So make sure to hit that subscribe. I'm so grateful for all the reviews and comments, and I look forward to serving you in next week's episode.