Think meditation is hard?
Do me a favor.
Take a slow,
Deep breath in.
And now breathe out.
Congratulations.
You just meditated.
Hi,
I'm Crystal Joukowsky,
And this is Breathe In,
Breathe Out,
A weekly mindfulness and meditation podcast for anyone ready to own their own shit and find a little peace while doing it.
We are here in the podcast studio again,
And I'm just thrilled.
I have Mama Cat just curled up in my lap.
She's happy and content.
She's purring and her little claws just kind of are kneading my leg.
I have to remind her that there's flesh underneath that cloth that she's so happily cuddled up with me.
It's a new year.
And you know,
When we were little kids,
We would anxiously await our birthdays.
We were excited for the next morning when you'd wake up and you were 11.
Recently,
My grandson turned 11.
Yes,
I'm a grandma.
And it was a couple of days before his birthday and I asked him,
What are you looking forward to?
What are you excited about,
About being 11?
And he was like,
Just being 11.
I'm not 10 anymore.
There was just something in his brain.
That's all he needed was this simplistic.
I'm just excited to be another year,
Another year older.
I love it.
It's adorable.
And sometimes I really wish that we could all return to that youthful excitement for just our birthdays or tomorrow.
It's like Christmas or the holidays when the next morning you're going to wake up and maybe there's going to be a big group and family or there's the presence or there's the connection that's coming.
And there's so much joy,
The anticipation of tomorrow coming.
And here we are.
Tomorrow is here.
It's the new year.
And last year I felt very strongly that my message needed to be one of self-care.
And through the pandemic,
Through everything that was just going on in the world at that moment,
I really felt strongly that we all needed that reminder to take a moment to step back and breathe and put ourselves higher on that priority list because we are a finite resource and once we are drained,
There's not a magical pot from which to pull additional energy to continue our lives.
And so we had self-care Sundays and really drummed up and dreamt up new ways for people to practice self-care.
And it was really fun and fabulous.
And this year we've been sitting there and trying to figure out what this year,
What our theme would be.
And after chatting today,
We've kind of decided that we want to return to our roots.
We've lost a little bit of a side of where we started and the message that we wanted,
Which was just accept you for you.
And it's not that we veered very far from it.
I mean,
We're very much still in alignment with that.
And yet sometimes you get lost in the what can be and what will be.
So we're returning to our roots of just accepting us exactly how we are and the joy and beauty that is in that expression of humanity.
A lot of people right now are saying new year,
New you,
And they're encouraging people to grow and change and shift and what are those big resolutions that you want to do?
And this rings true for a lot of people.
And there are certain things that absolutely I would love to have be a new part of me instead of the old part of me.
And yet I really want to just embrace the new year same me.
The me that I am right here right now today,
You might hear my cat purring.
It brings me joy.
The me that I am here today right now has been through so very much,
Has learned so many lessons,
Has grown and become one hell of a human being.
And if I say new year,
New me,
Then what does that mean for the me that I am right now?
Does that mean that the me I am is inadequate in some way,
Shape or form that I need to slough off that old skin and find a new one?
Again,
I say this is a great motto for a lot of people because that is a motivation and it helps them.
And for me,
It's really more of a new year same me.
New year embrace where I'm at,
Embrace who I am,
Embrace the lessons that I've learned and how can I carry those forward?
How can I help other people with them?
How can I nurture those little parts of me?
That are maybe not super strong and yet are still so beautiful and could use an added infusion of let's flex that muscle and be even better.
I honestly believe that you are a beautiful,
Amazing human being.
You have your own experiences,
Your own challenges,
Your own gauntlets that you have gone through in your life that have brought you to this moment and this space and this time.
For some of us,
We are absolutely ready to take on the world and change those things about us that we don't like.
And for others of us,
It's just a challenge to be present here in this moment at this time moving through today and into tomorrow.
So I sincerely hope that wherever you're at and whatever you're embracing,
Whether that's new year,
New you or new year old me and I am fabulous,
I encourage you to just be exactly where you're at in this moment.
Happy new year.
I hope that this one is an absolutely wonderful and full of excitement and joy and growth and connection and everything that you needed to be.
Until next time.
I hope this moment of self-care and healing brought you some hope and peace.
I'm Crystal Dikowski on Instagram,
Facebook and YouTube and I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon.
I look forward to being with you again here on Breathe In,
Breathe Out.
Until next time,
Take care.
