What might you be missing?
The world around us is designed to keep us very busy.
When we are busy, we live in a constant state of distraction… losing focus on what is right in front of us.
This lack of presence in our daily lives not only robs us of the opportunity to fully experience our lives as intended, it also blocks out guidance and messages created to help us day-to-day.
In this episode I share a story about my cat, Pixie, the flower she brought me, and the ah-ha moment that followed.
I also leave you with a little challenge to consider in the week ahead.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain typos. Synchronicities and patterns we often miss. That's what we're talking about in episode 106. Hey there, I'm Cari Wise, after graduating from veterinary school over 20 years ago, struggling to create balance and failing to protect my mental health and emotional wellbeing, I finally ditched all the rules and forged my own path forward. I used my professional education in ways I didn't even know were possible. And through that journey, I developed a deep sense of who I am, a brand new set of skills, and a clear understanding of what I'm meant to contribute to the world. Each week here in the Intentional Joy Podcast, I'll share what I've learned along the way in order to help you develop your own deep sense of personal identity and connection with yourself so you can live an empowered life on your terms too. This is what I call aligned living, and it begins with intentional joy. So if you're ready to claim this for yourself, let's go. Hello, my friends. Welcome to episode 106. Today as I set down to record this podcast episode on a topic that I've been considering for a few days now, I'm struck with just how exactly right this episode is for this day. See, my plan was to talk to you about flowers and particularly about the flowers that have been blooming in my house, and we are going to get to that. But what's so interesting about the way that this has unfolded is that the reason that I noticed the flowers in the first place was because I paid attention. And as I sat down today to record this episode and paid attention to something else, the evidence of this being exactly the right topic literally flew into my view. Let me explain. A few days ago when the cats were out playing around in the house, one of my cats came running up to me so excited because of what she'd found. She dropped it right in front of me. And you know, if you have cats, you just never quite know what it is they're gonna bring to you. Well, this just happened to be a flower bloom. I have a plant that's sitting in my dining room that I brought in from outside in the fall. It's Amanda via plant, and they really are tropical plants. They like warm weather and lots of sunshine. I live in the Midwest. These guys don't typically make it very well throughout the winter, but I noticed several weeks back that this one had started to bloom. I was excited about the blooming flowers. It was beautiful to see this blooming inside at a time of year where it's dark and drab and gray. So of course, I am thrilled to see these flowers. And she brought me one of the blooms that had fallen off, and she dropped it right at my feet as I picked it up and studied it and and sniffed it. And it smelled wonderful. I started to realize and remember when this flower, this plant, had begun to bloom. And as I considered the timeline of it and really paid attention, I realized that the first blooms of this plant came as the last blooms of my orchid had dropped off. There had been a continuity of blooming that transpired, and right before that, the cactus, the, the winter, if you wanna call it a Christmas cactus or a Thanksgiving cactus. And I know there's ways to tell the difference. My cactus just tend to do whatever they wanna do, but the, that one had bloomed as well. And so as I started to consider that and think back through the series of blooms that I had seen in our household, I realized in that moment that there had been some kind of plant blooming flowers inside of our house for a solid year. It had started back this time last year when my orchid had begun to bloom, and it had held blooms from the two different plants within the pot for many, many months. By the time that all of that transpired, then we had this holiday cactus that had started to bloom, and then the orchid bloomed again, and then the manda villa. And as those blooms were dropping off of the manda villa, because this was one of two blooms that were left on it, I started paying attention to what else was happening with the other plants. Because the holiday cactus, Christmas cactus Thanksgiving cactus had lost its blooms already. It's the, you know, getting close to the end of January here. And the orchid is back in a stage of growth, putting out new leaves, but not putting out new shoots. So I was curious to see would that continue? And as I watched over the next 24 hours as the final bloom of the Manda villa started to shrivel up and fall off, I noticed that the holiday cactus was blooming again. Now, it's not supposed to be blooming right now. This is not the time for it to bloom. It just bloomed a few months ago. But here it is putting out both red and white flowers once again. And I'm curious now to see what's gonna bloom in its place. It's such a beautiful reminder that there's always things going on underneath the surface that we're not aware of, that things are always aligning for our ultimate good and our ultimate enjoyment, and we miss so much of it when we don't pay attention. Sure, I would've absolutely been grateful for the flowers as they continued to bloom, but if I hadn't slowed down and considered how it was all connected, I never would've realized that we had had a continuity of over 12 months of constant blooms within the house. This is kind of a big deal for me, for those of you who have listened to our podcast for any period of time, you know that I really enjoy the outdoors. You probably have heard me talking about working with our flower gardens and things like this. And this time of year can sometimes be a struggle because it is cold and it is dark and there really isn't much going on. And so as this is, as these flowers bloom inside the house, and I don't have a lot of plants, let me just take a second and point this out. I literally have as, let me count them right now. I have four plants in my house. I have this manilla that's supposed to be outside that I just brought in to see if I could help it survive over the winter. And it's going crazy. I'll just say that this started as a relatively small manilla plant that I put in a slightly bigger pot in the summer and gave it a trellis. And now it's like trying to climb over the top of the refrigerator. So it's very happy inside the house, which I'm thrilled with. And then it started blooming. And in addition to that, that plant, which won't be in here forever, as soon as the weather changes back to to warmer weather where it can sustain, it'll go back outside. But in addition to that, I have one, one potted orchid that has two plants in it that I got a couple of years ago for my birthday. And then I have two holiday cactus plants, this one that's got double colored blooms, that's the one that's been blooming. And then one I shared last year that hadn't bloomed forever, that produced some beautiful plant, beautiful blooms, and now has like proceeded to try to die. So it needs some attention, but it's still hanging in there. So that's it. We only have four house plants. So that we, that we've managed to have continuous blooms inside the house for a solid year from just a few plants has been fascinating. And that I've been able to now notice that not only have they bloomed and I've appreciated the blooms, but that there has always been some type of bloom to interact with. That to me is fascinating. We start to notice the continuities, the patterns, the synchronicities, when we start to pay attention. And we can only pay attention if we slow down. When we stay so busy in the day-to-day, we miss so much of our life experience. We get caught up in what the world tells us that we should be doing. And what the world has taught us is important. But my friends, all of those things that the world teaches you are vitally important for your survival probably aren't. And they're probably keeping you from experiencing your life in the way that it was extent intended to be experienced. What I know for sure and for certain is that each and every one of us is here for a reason. And that reason includes growth and evolution and change. We are here to become the highest version of ourselves that we possibly can become during this lifetime. And when we stay really busy, when we stay really focused on exter external measures, on external goals, on achievements that we didn't choose for ourselves, when we stay caught up in the rat race of the day in and day out, the days start to fall one into the next. And our experiences of the days start to stack into this spiral of negativity. I'm not saying this to be a downer, I'm saying this to help us to understand that if we want to change the type of experience that we have in our lives and in our jobs, it starts with first becoming present with what's in front of us. And when our nervous systems are completely on overdrive, when we're stressed out to the max, when we are overwhelmed in full of anxiety and dread, we are in survival mode. We are simply pushing through day after day, hanging on for dear life. And the idea of actually having some downtime to reset, to renew, to rejuvenate, to recalibrate the nervous system just seems like a dream. Because so many of us are so much in overdrive in this highly activated nervous system of anxiety and stress that even when we have a few moments, we cannot seem to slow it down, my friends. It takes some practice and it takes intention and it takes dedication to figuring out how exactly it is that you're going to reengage in the world around you. Because even though you are staying very, very busy, that doesn't mean that you're very, very engaged. It's quite the opposite. It's the sneakiest way of living on autopilot that there possibly is. And as we start to pay attention to things around us, we start to notice the synchronicities and the patterns. It's really interesting how it can anchor us back in what is real, in what is true and what's actually going to help move us forward. So as you're listening to this episode today, I wonder if you can consider, if you can remember a time in the in the recent past where you've noticed a synchronicity or a pattern. Has there been something that's come into your awareness time and time again? Has there been a pattern of activities or a repeating pattern of events that just keeps happening over and over again? Many of us look at patterns specifically as problems as something that we're meant to fix. But I wanna offer you another perspective. When you notice a pattern, look for the lesson. Look for the message. Because the reason that patterns start to show up in our lives is because it's trying to get our attention. The universe is trying to get our attention in one way, shape, or form. It's not to beat you up, it's not to judge you. It's to pull you out of that autopilot living that's got you so busy yet so disengaged that has you so wound up and exhausted that you can't even rest when you're supposed to have time off. When we can reconnect with what's actually going on around us, which requires us to disconnect from the story and the drama and the narrative that is created by our minds, we can then reset our entire experience. Noticing is often the easiest first step. So pay attention to what's happening around you. Is there anything in your life that you can find a synchronicity or a pattern or a continuation through like I did with the flowers? What an interesting and fascinating thing to realize that it's been over 12 solid months that we've had flowers blooming in this house. It kind of blows my mind, and honestly, it makes me really curious on how exactly this pattern is gonna continue, because right now I don't see how it will, but I suspect that if I want it to, I'll see it happen. And as I sat down today to talk to you about this, and I looked around outside taking a moment to be present, I was delighted to see a pair of cardinals on one of the bird feeders. So the way that I have my desk set up here in my office is I have two windows. I've kind of have the desk in a corner, and I have two windows, one on each side. And I'm a crazy bird lady. So I've got bird feeders that are hung on both sides outside as well. And so I noticed a cardinal actually noticed two cardinals on the one bird feeder. And I glanced over at the other bird feeder, and then I noticed another cardinal, and then I'm like, holy monkey, how many cardinals are there? And so I started to count and I was wrong. There weren't two, there weren't three. Every time I would go to count again, another would fly in and another would fly in. And at one point I counted nine cardinals among two bird feeders outside my windows. I can't remember the last time I saw nine cardinals at one time at these feeders. Mind blowing stuff, synchronicities patterns, pay attention. The evidence of the value of your life is all around you. And when we get so stuck in the downward negative spiral, when we get sucked into the doom and the gloom and the catastrophe of the world around us, we miss the anchor points. We miss the truth. This life really does become what we make of it, and it all starts with what we're paying attention to, what we focus we create. So as you go forward through the next week, I have a challenge for you. I would like for you to consider what's happening around you, not with your mind, but with your eyes. Watch for it. What do you notice? What are the patterns? What are the synchronicities? What is it that keeps popping up over and over and over again? Be curious about that. Just ask, what is it that I'm supposed to learn? What is it that I'm supposed to know? What is it that I'm supposed to become aware of in this moment? As you ask those kinds of questions, what is so fascinating about this is that the answers will come and it is through the answers to those questions that you'll really start to find your way forward in your life, in an active and intentional way. My friends, your life is what you make of it. And in our world where we stay so busy and so consumed with things that don't actually even matter, it's very hard for us to live into the highest version of ourselves. But it's something you absolutely can do. So go through this week with your eyes wide open, and as you notice those patterns and synchronicities for yourself, write them down. Take a note, keep a journal. You'll be amazed how much support you have in the day-to-day. That was always there, but you just didn't realize. All right, my friends, that's gonna wrap it up for today. See you next time.