Curating the Curious
Welcome to Curating the Curious, the podcast that celebrates staying curious in life and never settling into a box.
This show is for the creators, the seekers, the explorers, the truth tellers….and the forever students of life.
No matter what age or stage you’re currently at, this is not as good as it gets and it is never too late to begin.
Join me as we explore all of the questions that come with the idea of curiosity. A place where the possibilities are endless and you can always start again.
We expand our lives through curiosity. One of my greatest passions is finding ways to encourage and inspire others to keep pushing, sharing, living, and making things for the world to see.
Curating the Curious
Day 2- Let's Turn This Sh*t Into Something Beautiful
Welcome to DAY TWO of our new 30-day project where we make something with our hands every day to improve mental health during difficult times. We all realize that creativity heals...it's time to put that knowledge into action.
I'm going to publish an episode to follow along with several days of each week (I'll take breaks on Fridays and weekends in order to give you time to catch up as needed). These episodes will exist here, marked with the days numbered, in order for you to follow along at any speed that you like. Miss a day? Doesn't matter. Just pick up right where you left off and keep making things. These episodes will give us all some accountability, but if you need more, pair up with a partner. It really does help!
Join our creative community by making something today, whether it's for five minutes or several hours—your brain will thank you. Let's do this thing together and turn all of this sh*t into something more beautiful!
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I think everything in life is art what you do, how you dress, the way you love someone and how you talk, your smile and your personality, what you believe in and all your dreams, the way you drink your tea, how you decorate your home or your party, your grocery list, the food you make, how your writing looks and the way you feel Life is art by Helena Bonham Carter. I decided to choose this quote for today's episode, which is day two of our brand new project, because I found myself only wanting to clean and I thought, oh man, I got to do a project I can't let go on day two. But then I started thinking this actually is. This is part of the project. Cleaning is a really good example of stimulating the effort-driven reward circuit in your brain. Your hands are moving, your body's moving, you're thinking about what to keep, what to put away, where to put it, and then, when you're done, you have this sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. So I think this was a perfect example and another way to let anyone know that's listening, that pretty much everything in life can be art. Everybody living and breathing is an artist in their own right, and it's funny I had completely forgotten that when I did the episode that focused on the effort-driven reward circuit in your brain. I don't even know how long ago actually, I have no idea what episode that was in, I just know I spoke about it. When I did that, I mentioned Marie Kondo and the whole cleaning sensation that she got out into the world about tidying. So I decided to look it up and I realized that I think I called her Marie Kondo when I did the episode, but anyway, I called her Marie Kondo when I did the episode, but anyway, so it's Marie Kondo.
Speaker 1:I started reading about her method and I was like, oh my God, this is more than just cleaning and I totally get why it became such a sensation. So basically, her method is coined as KonMari method and it's about choosing your items that you have in your house, choosing only what sparks joy and keeping that. So you're not choosing what to discard, but rather choosing to keep only the items that speak to your heart. Konmari method encourages tidying by category, not by location, so you don't go to one bedroom and start tidying. You begin with clothes, then you move on to books, papers, kimono which are miscellaneous items and finally sentimental items. Keep only those things that speak to the heart and discard those items that no longer spark joy. Thank them for their service. Then let them go. So what I was doing today was not exactly this. It was actual cleaning and unpacking and laundry.
Speaker 1:But now, now that I've read this and reminded myself of what I once spoke about, I really want to do this. So I don't know, just food for thought. Don't be too critical on what you choose for your projects. Just keep your mind open and let it come to you. So I am recording these episodes in a block of I'm thinking seven or eight or nine episodes before I release them, because I want to get ahead of the game, just in case I fall behind for a day or two. I don't want to leave anybody hanging and not finish this out. So right now I'm recording these, I'm doing the projects, but I'm not releasing them, and I'm trying to come up with a working title right now. Right now, I'm thinking that I want this project to be let's turn this shit into something beautiful instead of the alchemy or whatever, which is basically what alchemy is, is turning shit into something beautiful. I'm thinking that because it just feels so right.
Speaker 1:If you've been listening over the last five years, you've noticed that I do not curse on this podcast and I have cursed today and I cursed yesterday and it's funny, I've always wanted to mention it but it's just not come up. The reason why I never cursed on it was because my daughter does not like it when I curse and so I might stop cursing now, but I've just really needed to. I've been dealing with a lot of pent up anger and frustration at what's happening in the world and the word shit has just really felt good coming out. But that is why I don't curse on this, because the podcast is for my daughter. She doesn't like it when I curse. I do curse in life, guys, I'm not a not cursor. Oh, she's walking in right now. I'm talking about the fact that I don't. I'm talking about the fact that I don't curse. Yeah, I heard through the door Hello Hi, oh, my gosh. Okay, I'm back. So working title. So far, maybe just the title for today.
Speaker 1:How do we turn this shit into something beautiful? How do we alchemize the anger, the pain, the rage that we're feeling into something beautiful? How do we take that anger, that pain, that rage and transmute it? Baby steps, small daily actions, sticking to this project, writing, reading, making things with your hands, connecting with true, true people that light you up, just to be in the room with them true, true people that light you up, just to be in the room with them. I told you I'd be revealing little bits day by day I think that a really good thing to reveal about what I've been working on with myself and my life in these past five years. It has a lot to do with who I was surrounding myself with. I will be turning 50 in less than five months and I have spent years examining myself and examining the relationships that I have allowed in my life.
Speaker 1:Everybody talks about the midlife crisis, but not everyone talks about the midlife awakening. What starts out as a crisis can become this life-changing awakening where one day you wake up and you say I am fucking done with this. I've got one life. My energy is like a bag of precious diamonds. If I walk in the door after spending time with you and I have to think about all the ways that I could have possibly offended you just by being myself or pissed you off just by being myself, you are out. If I have any feeling whatsoever that when I walk out of the room, you are going to speak against me or tear me down. You are out.
Speaker 1:For over 45 years I allowed shitty relationships to remain in my life. I allowed unsupportive people to remain in my life. I was not taught to cut that out. As my daughter has been growing up through her tween years and she's getting ready to enter into middle school, I've been reliving all of the past friendships that I made as I watch her go through her ups and her downs and I realize how little guidance I had in this type of thing when I was growing up and how much I allowed. That was not okay. As I started going through these relationships in my head and sifting through the memories of elementary school, middle school, high school and beyond, I realized how little I knew about true friendship and the way it was supposed to be.
Speaker 1:Raising my daughter through these years and seeing how I was going to transmute this by guiding her in the right direction has also coincided with some extremely large wake-up calls in my own life with friendship the kind that if I told you the things that have been done to me in the last couple of years, you would not believe me Betrayal in the most heart-crushing, heart-breaking situation that I could ever put into words, and that's all I can say, unfortunately. But I can tell you I learned what they mean when they say some things will break your heart, but they'll also fix your vision, and so this explains partly where I've been all this time working on myself, trying to take anger and pain and work through it. Enough to come to a space like this and be able to speak about what I've been working on in a calm way, speaking from the scar instead of the wound, although I will say it is a pretty fresh scar.
Speaker 1:I haven't quite been myself for several years, especially in social situations. I've been really guarded. I've had walls up. I've been doing a lot of work on boundaries and when you're working on boundaries it's hard to let people in. It's really hard. But as I've been healing, I find myself really seeing the people that stand out, that just make me feel good, that I think you know what I can be myself when I'm with this person. They're not going to judge me, they're not going to talk about me when I walk out of the room. It just feels good to be around them.
Speaker 1:It's no longer about what I won't allow, what I'm pushing out, what I'm putting the walls up for the boundaries. It's more about spotting the good ones and saying, yeah, I like that. I'm going to slowly open up and let you in. I've got to make sure because I've been burned real hard but slowly those walls start to come down and you start to just see who's allowed in. The really sad thing, though, is when you've spotted someone that you know would be great, but they're not very selective about who they spend their time with, and you have to go. Well, shoot, it's not going to work unless I can get you alone somehow, and that's just how it is. Because I'm not going to do it, I will not surround myself with people who don't make me feel like I can be myself, and that's the thing it's like. You don't have to light me up. I said that earlier. I just have to feel like I can be me and you can be you, and we're being real and genuine together.
Speaker 1:I could go on about this for hours, but the last point that I'm going to make here the part that I love so much about all of this interior work I'm doing during midlife. I love being by myself so much that it better be damn good if I'm going to give that up to hang out with you Also. I love hanging out with my husband, my family, so much. It better be damn good if you're going to pull me away from that, and if it's not, I'm not doing it again. I'm out. Save your energy for those that you never need to perform for.
Speaker 1:Hopefully I haven't digressed too much to throw you off of the path of committing to this project today, but I'm going to leave you with this last quote when people fall in love with someone's flowers, but not their roots, they don't know what to do when autumn comes. Your relationships need to be built on deep alignment of values, character and morals, not just love of appearance, hobbies and status. If you haven't already worked on day two of your project, get to it. It could be anything at all, doing something with your hands, create something, make something, clean something, grow something, cook something, whatever you want. And may you find someone who falls in love with your roots and not just your flowers, and also stay curious.
