Finding Joy in the Hard

This wise piece of advice comes from my 16-year-old student.  I had given a random act of kindness assignment to my Yoga for Stress Management students. I teach yoga at a nearby community college. In this episode, I share one of my student's random acts of kindness and an aha she had in her reflection. She realized simply because your a mom or an adult, you don't know everything. "T...

This one word that many of use often can make us sound less confident, less certain and less grateful. Can you guess what it is?  Just  Yes, just. Think about it. We might say, "I'm just calling to ask," vs "I'm calling to ask" Which sounds more confident? Yes, the second one.  Using the word just  minimizes whatever comes next. The information presented on this podca...

Do you work with your energy? What does that mean? We all have a time of day when we feel the most energized. That's the time of day to exercise, create or start a difficult project because we'll have more stamina. A lot of get stuck because we try to do things when we're energy depleted.  The information presented on this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended...

When people say something negative to you, do you dwell on it?  Do you find you keep replaying it in your head?  If you answered yes then believe it or not,  you're actually cosigning with that way of thinking. Some part of you is agreeing with what they said.  Don Miguel Luis.  Author of the Four Agreements says, "Don't take anything personally  because what others say to us has no...

We spend so much time looking to where we're going, but we often don't take time to look at where we've come from.  Look back a year ago, or maybe five years or maybe to when you were a kid and look at all that you've accomplished. Maybe it's a shift in mindset or a way of being or something else.  Take time to see where you've come from and where you are today. Celeb...

So today I share with you a guided Jin Shin Jyutsu meditation that I taught live via zoom on Monday. (All are always welcome to join live. You can get the log-in details in my Sunday newsletter). You can sign up for that via my website: www.suzanneabarron.com This meditation is all about embracing the magic of today and tapping into your strength, your power, your creativity and your right to be h...

Do you ever find yourself saying, I'll do it tomorrow?  Tomorrow I'll  be ready. But guess what?  That which you can create today  with that energy, that outlook, that way of being might not be available tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow you'll be even more tired or maybe you'll be pulled in a different direction.   As Elizabeth Gilbert writes about the same thing in her book, big magic...

Once we become impatient, it can stay with us for hours after. It impacts our perspective, how we look at things, how we treat others.  But, we get to choose how we respond. Do we want to make whatever happened this huge deal? Because that's what we do when we get impatient.  We make such a big deal, so much bigger than it is. so much bigger than it needs to be.  But how do we shift and not a...

What is it that you really want to do?  Have you ever thought about it?  Or are you simply going through the motions,  checking off boxes on that to do list, errands that you need to run, work that you need to complete?   Have you taken time  each day  or at least once a week  to dream?  To think about possibilities and opportunities, and even if they feel outlandish,  go with it. See what you can...

Welcome back to Finding Joy in the Hard. I'm your host, Suzanne Andorra Barron, and my thought for you today is you get to have your own ideas, your own thoughts, your own beliefs, your own way of being.   What do I mean by this?  We'll have a thought, and we'll say it out loud, and someone might seek to correct us. They'll say, no, no, no, no, that's not how it is. This i...

Life moves so quickly that we often overlook the fact that the dream we've been waiting for, praying about and even planning is here. Only we've barely acknowledged it as we're onto the next wish, dream or desire.  Too often we get lost in our thoughts (future desires or old stories) that we fail to celebrate that we've arrived to where we only wished we might be headed.  I had...

In this episode, I share how I used an ancient Japanese healing practice to help ease my allergies.  I practiced it while I was in the Catacombs in Italy. Play with this practice and see how it can support you. It's as simple as holding your fingers to help ease discomfort, calm your nervous system and so much more.  In the episode, I refer to the spleen flow. Here's the link: https://su...

That thought you're stuck on,  have you considered how it might be hurting you? And your relationships?  Have you taken the time to think about what old story it might stem from? In this episode, I share how an old belief was impacting my relationship with my son and creating unnecessary stress.  To help you discover the belief that thought is connected to, I suggest you hold your thumb. This...

Have you ever considered why it's so easy to be negative? Negativity shows up in so many forms: complaining, gossip, comparing, thinking poorly about ourselves or others, getting annoyed at the simplest things like another driver or someone walking too slow in front of us, etc. Why do we do it? One reason is that it's easy. It's our default. Our brains are hard wired through evoluti...

Welcome back to Finding Joy in the Hard. I'm your host, Suzanne Andorra Baron.  Do you fight to be right?  Sometimes we need to when the stakes are high, but what about when it's an ordinary conversation and there is no need to be right?  Sure, being right feels good in the moment as it inflates and reaffirms our self worth,  But it can also bring a level of tension, especially if we&apo...

Welcome back to Finding Joy in the Hard. I'm your host, Suzanne Andorra Baron.   When you start to worry or stress out, have you asked yourself if it's the circumstance that is stressing you out or your beliefs about the circumstance that is causing you discomfort?  Unless we stop and question our beliefs or thoughts, we don't realize that it's usually the story we tell ourselv...

Welcome back to Finding Joy in the Hard. I'm your host, Suzanne Andorra Baron.  As you may know, I teach Yoga for Stress Management at a community college. Last week, my students turned in the gratitude reflections.  One student wrote multiple times, "I don't think I have anything to be grateful for." My response to him was I think you're overthinking this. You're try...

Welcome back to Finding Joy in the Hard. I'm your host, Suzanne Andora Barron  So my thought for you today comes from Letting Go by David Hawkins ─ It's the difference between I won't and I can't.  Both are based in fear, but he writes, "I won't do something is quite a different feeling than to think that I'm a victim and I can't." Think about all the t...

Welcome back to Finding Joy in the Hard. I'm your host, Suzanne Andora Barron. I'm a yoga instructor, a meditation and mindfulness coach and a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner.  How do you feel about failure? Do you see it as an opportunity to grow and learn or do you get that sick feeling in your stomach that you did something poorly. I get it. I'm definitely the latter.  In this episo...

Welcome back to Finding Joy in the Hard. I'm your host, Suzanne Andorra Baron. So midweek, I like to offer a thought, a teaching, or an aha. So my, my thought to you today is How does anxiety show up in your life? This thought is inspired by Cecilia Manila's episode on Anxiety exposed, understanding its tactics and taking back control. (To listen to Cecilia's episode links are below...

Are your beliefs of what's possible holding you back.  If so, listen up: You may have heard about a 4th tier football (soccer) team in Sweden—Ostersunds FK—who had little hopes of winning until their coach, Graham Porter, a Brit who never coached a team before noticed that all the teams trained the same, organized the same and played the same. So he mixed things up. In addition to practicing,...

This is a simple practice to help you connect to your courage and calm those feelings of fear. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.  Simply hold your index finger. If you're new to me and to Jin Shin Jyutsu, it will sound crazy. But each finger calms a different emotion, opens a different part of the body, and connects you mentally, emotionally and physically.  In this episode, I tell you w...

Are living,  really living this precious life that you've been given?  Or are you simply going through the motions? Do you act without abandon?  Or do you hold back  because of what if?  What if you get hurt?  What if it doesn't work out? A former podcast guest, Desiree Probolsky, episode 20 , whose youngest child has severe autism, is nonverbal and has a significant heart defect, said, ...

Do you obsess about things you've said or done, afraid of what other people will think?  We think we said or did something dumb that others are still talking about or thinking about days later.  But they're not because they likely worrying about the dumb thing they said or did.  There is something called the spotlight effect. It means that  we feel like we have the spotlight on us all th...

I challenge you to go for a 15 minute walk without your phone. Yes that is the stress reducer. The first time I did that this past summer, I felt like something really important was missing.  Once I could let go of the fact that I didn't have my phone, I felt like I had to do the walk a certain way. I expected to have huge insights which I wasn't getting in the beginning. So then I convi...