Winter Reflections: Editing Your Life

In this episode of "Random Thoughts with Sara," we delve into the metaphorical season of winter in our life editing journey. Winter is a time for reflection, introspection, and deep edits. Join me as I explore how this season encourages us to pause, review, and refine the aspects of our lives that need attention. I’ll share personal experiences and insights on how winter’s quiet and stillness can be a powerful catalyst for meaningful change and growth. Whether you're looking to declutter your mind, reassess your goals, or simply find peace in the present moment, this episode offers guidance and inspiration for embracing winter’s wisdom in your journey of life editing. Tune in and discover how to make the most of this reflective season.

Transcript

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Welcome back I am your host, Sarah also Brooks. This is a podcast about the art of editing your life season by season. This process is messy. Beautiful, and what it's all about, it brings life to your soul, sets you up for success so that you can thrive and truly enjoy the life you're intentionally building. Thank you for joining me on the second episode of edit your life. I am really excited that you're here. Hopefully you got to listen to the first one. It's not. Let me bring you up to speed. I have been on this journey for about eight years. Of learning how to edit my life. It was really. Overfilled with lots of wonderful things. And I woke up one day and I couldn't do it anymore. I literally could not do it anymore. Maybe later I'll share like, just kind of like. The panic episodes I was having. And this, this weight that I could not stand up under, I felt like I was forced to pause and really heal. I honestly feel excited, but most of all, honored to share this information. I feel like I kind of pieced it all together from wisdom, from my mentor and. guidance from my therapist and my friends and books I'd read. And Sean, my husband and my family and nature and God and all these things. I'm excited to kind of share how God showed me to piece it together. How I could actually be proactive. At creating a life that felt. Wonderful and effortless and delightful and enjoyable. Versus stressful and. Me always feeling like I couldn't keep up. And this driving force behind me of more and more and more. It has just been such a hard and messy journey, but so beautiful. Before I dive in. I just want you to step outside. Just for like five minutes. I want you to step outside subtly or soul. And lug around. Let the sun hit your face. Taking all the ambient light. Listen to the leaves, crackling. Smell the earth. Whatever you need to do. Just take a minute to absorb what's happening around you. Seasons are happening. Without you. Doing a dang thing. They are happening. It is a rhythm, it comes and it comes again and it keeps coming and it moves into the next thing there's growth. This process is helping us press pause for a minute to pay attention to the seasons that are happening to be mindful about how we want this to all work out for us. It is to say. I'm not going to let society just ring me out and squeeze every single thing out of me and make me produce constantly. It is taking a cue from nature and from God that seasons come seasons go, there is work to be done in each season. And I'm really excited to talk about winter with you. Winter is an interesting season because there will be no producing during the season. It is a season of reflection. It is a season of editing and clearing out space. It is a season of repairing things. It's a season of planning. It's a season. Of rest and enjoying the people around you, enjoying yourself is a seasoned verse store. It is a season. Where. You don't have to do a dang thing. As I was studying about farmers. I noticed that the days are shorter. So the responsibilities were less, there wasn't a lot to do. The land was covered with snow, so they couldn't work the land. They couldn't restore the soil. All have their work and their actual producing was not happening then. So all the things in the ordering, which you do it is flexible. If you need more rest one day, you rest. If you want to Take account of what you have. You can, if you want to repair something, you can. So it's kind of like there's a really long season with short days. Specifically designed for you to take a break, to press pause. that is the thing that I really love about winter. Sometimes I think winter is boring. I have had a few. Situations where I kind of get, oh, I want winter to be done. I'm ready for producing. I'm ready for my seeds to be planted and start seeing a harvest. But ultimately I've realized. The more I lean into the season. The better that my year runs. It's. Set up for success. It's on a solid foundation. I have a plan. I have room to grow or add things because I've already done all the. Decision-making before. So it really sets you up for such success. To me each season has about four main. Jobs or responsibilities or opportunities. I believe winter, the four main ones that stand out to me are one to audit. It is a time to take into account all the things that you have in your garden. And all that encompasses them. And you're very specific and you take time to really. Give yourself a report card. How your life has been and how you're feeling. The second one is you take that time to clear an edit, anything that you learned from that data. And you are going to just clear up anything that is not bringing you life. You're going to repurpose things. You are going to have the necessary endings. You are going to do the work. The third one is you're going to curate and repair. And I also believe you're going to rest and restore during the season. And so you are going to be curating the things you love and resting with them and being with them. And then you're going to restore and repair the things. That have been broken or neglected. You're going to take time being gentle to yourself and pouring energy into the things that you have decided to keep in your life. The last thing is you, aren't going to have a plan. You're going to plan and you're going to build the life that you want. You have one life. And when you take time. To plan out what you want to build. It actually happens. You are actually going to be on a path. My husband told me about this trim tab. It is this tiny little piece on a boat and it's the tiniest little piece. But that little term tab, if you direct it in the direction, That you want to go. It will literally shift the entire boat. When I heard that, I was like, Ooh, that's really like, oh my goodness. If you actually take it seriously and you actually do these little tiny things, It will transform your life. It will literally change the direction in the direction that you want to be going anyway. You no longer are going to be responding and constantly. On the offensive of what the world is telling you to do. You are going to have a path, a clear path ahead, and you are going for it. Today, I am going to share a little bit about the first task or opportunity in winter. I believe it's audit. My last episode I talked about. Mapping out your life, kind of drawing a garden and putting all the job titles you carry. And when I say job titles, I don't necessarily just mean at work. I mean within your home, within your community, within your ministries, within your friendships, whatever that is I have some friends that they carry. Job titles of the party planning of the family. I have some friends that carry they're the neighborhood association coordinator, it's all the things that you show up for in life. And I know I talked about that last episode. So if you'd like to hear a little bit more, you can listen to that. I want to talk about. Once you've written all those things down. Everything that you do. And you've sat with it. And then after you've sat with it, then you've written down all the things that need to happen to make your job successful. The cognitive load, the load that you carry of, like, I have to run to Costco to get the snacks for the volunteer opportunity. I need to stay late to clean up. I got to book the babysitter. I have to get cash to pay the babysitter. I need to make sure the dishes are clean. And there's food for the babysitter to feed the children. I mean, all of these things. So like the volunteer opportunity happens. But how does that happen? There is a lot of things that have to happen in order for that one opportunity. In your day. Two. Be successful. That is what I'm talking about. Cognitive load. When I talk to women, when I talk to myself, I realized I listings like, yeah, I did that. Yeah, I did that. Yeah. I did that. Once you've done that. Once you have been honest with yourself in your list, honestly, please just take one more second. If you have a chance. To look at that list. And be honest at the things at the things. Because when I looked at my list, I was a little bit overwhelmed, but then I also had so many different emotions. So many emotions. And that's okay. We're going to be gentle with ourselves through this process. This. Audit process is a lot sometimes. When I first made my list. I was a little overwhelmed, just writing it. It brings up emotions of. Overwhelm, it brings up emotions of shame. You may be triggered and realize I should have just asked for a little bit of help. I took the opportunity away from my husband. I took the opportunity away from my mom that wanted to help, or my family. Or my neighbor. I took the opportunity away from them. By my pride of that, I can do all the things and I want to be the person that can do all the things really well. It just brings up so many emotions. It brought up emotions of efficiency. Like why in the world, what I go to the grocery store. Six times in a week for every single event, why would I go to Costco for my volunteer opportunity and my family opportunity and helping in the classroom? Why would I do that? Why wouldn't I pause for a second and make a list and do all the Costco at one time. I just realized some of this was self-inflicted. I just wasn't pausing to pay attention to all the things I was doing. In retrospect, when you look at the list, you're like, duh. That makes sense. Now I could combine those things. But at the time you were just moving at lightening speed, you did not have time to stop and pause and consider those things. So looking at it now. Just want to encourage you to be gentle with yourself. You did all the sings. So pat, on the back, you did this. I am so proud of you. It will a lot of work and you succeeded and now you get to pause and take a break and reconsider what you want to do moving forward. The first thing I want you to do is look at that list and give yourself a report card. This is for you alone to answer. I want you to become aligned with who you are and learn to tune in with yourself. Your garden will ultimately benefit others. So I just don't want you to ask your partner or your friends or your mom or your kids. Hey, how was I doing? Look at my list. Where do you think I should shave off some stuff? Or where do you think I should step away? Or did you think I was stressed last month? Or how am, doing in life. No, this is for you alone to give yourself. Feedback. This feedback. I want you to quiet your soul and listen, and just like, look, look at the list, be like, how did you feel? Did you feel. Like you were just killing it and it was so much fun and you would do it all over again. Or did you feel. When you look, do you feel like you missed out on some opportunities you wished were on that list, but you couldn't do it and you couldn't show up for those things because you said yes to somebody else. You said yes to throw this epic tradition. And you really just wanted a quiet time with your. Little people. That's what you wanted. But instead you. Chose to do the traditional thing you chose to show up for someone else's agenda. How do you feel. How do you feel in your body? How do you feel in your heart, your mind processing all those things. Honestly, write down some notes, just write on the side of your paper. Just like how you're feeling, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm feeling joyful for the future. I'm feeling relieved that I don't have to do that again. I'm feeling. Things are popping out at me that I don't want to do, or things are popping out at me right now that I want to do more of how are you feeling? Through this whole process, I would love for you just to lean into being curious. Curious, you don't have to be condemning. You don't have to be upset. You don't have to be mad. You don't have to. I mean, you don't have to do it again. You get a choice, how you want to move forward. This report card. Isn't actually like a, B or C one through 10. It's not like that. It's more of like this. Report card of, Hey, this is how I felt last season. I don't want to feel that way again. I was distracted by this. I was overwhelmed by this. I. Was not thriving or I was thriving or I felt really good energy when I did these things. And I didn't, when I did these things, when I see them on the list, now I have a visceral reaction to it. I don't want to do that again, or I love that. I wish there was more of that on my page. The next part of this audit is. What is the condition of the things that you want to keep in your life? Let's think about this. Uh, for me, I want to keep my husband in my life. What is the condition of my relationship? What has last year? Ben Lang. Has it been. Wonderful. Have we spent time together? Have we enjoyed each other? Has it been stressful? Is there. Pain points. What is the condition of that relationship? What is the condition of my hobby? Have I spent any time doing it? Have I kind of fallen behind. I don't even remember how to do that thing or, remember I was really taking time to be a part of that group and I haven't. For the last six months. And I wish I had, I was really connected in it. I felt comfortable. I was gaining skills. What is it in your life? Maybe it's your community. Maybe is your job. Maybe is your home. You know, my home, I love being at home, but right now it's kind of out of sorts. You just have not taken anything to Goodwill in a hot minute and you just keep bringing stuff in or you haven't taken the time to hang up the pictures on your wall. And they're sitting in a box in the corner and every time you walk by it, It's just reminds you that things are not finished. You feel unsettled? What are the conditions of your space, your relationships. The things that bring you joy. As we're walking through this process, I would love it. If you were journaling alongside your little garden map, if you had a chance to do it, I'm going to make some principles that you guys can print out and it kind of has some prompts. So you can jot down your thoughts as you're going through. It is such a cool thing to look back and be like, oh, I felt this way, but now I feel this way. It's just the contrast of the work you've put in is really beautiful and rewarding to see later on. It really helps you process the ideas because the more I started digging in, I was like, I love this relationship, but it has become transactional. I love this opportunity, but it has become a burden. Is it because. I'm not putting the time and attention and it just needs to be repaired or is it because it is time for me to hand it off and step away The last thing I'd like to talk about is soil. Soil is about the quality of your heart. Your mind, your body, your soul, a friend used to ask me, how is your head? How's your heart. How are you, how are you feeling? What's your anxiety levels? The quality of your soil. Is going to causing to flourish and thrive and grow. Or there it's going to do the opposite for me eight years ago. My soil was so depleted. There was not one drop of nutrients in my soil anymore. I needed time to replenish the soil. I need a time to connect with God, connect with my people. Connect back to myself. That is what I needed. So if I were to do an audit back then it was like, I would've written, depleted, not a ounce. Can't grow a dang thing. I need to step away from everything to try and recover. This soil. And what I will talk about a little bit later, what that looks like to repair your soil. It is going to take some work because we can't just keep pulling out and using up every ounce of nutrients and then expect. Our souls and our minds and our hearts to just be. Full at some point we need to constantly be refilling. I mean, now I'm at a place of like, I keep track of my levels. And so I don't get to a place of being depleted, but at the time I didn't. And so I had to go into repair mode. Today all I'm asking for is just to do a check. How's your heart. How's your mind. How's your body. How's your soul. We are holistic beings. Sometimes we feel things in our body like physically ill. We carry weight. We have anxiety and headaches. We have inflammation, look, all the things because. There is. Emotional things happening. Honestly, how are you? How is your soil? How do you feel in your body? How do you feel spiritually? How do you feel in your mind? How do you feel in your heart? How's your connections with your people and yourself. How do you feel this whole audit? Is really just, you. Giving yourself permission. To answer the question. Take up space. Take up time. And allow yourself to fully be vulnerable with yourself and be completely honest. Are you happy? Are you sad? Are you bitter? Are you confused? Are you frustrated? This data is going to help you. If this is tricky for you, it's okay. It was for me too. I hadn't really taken a lot of time to ask myself these questions. I kind of felt selfish asking myself these questions. This is an audit for ourselves so that we can do more things. That bring us life. So that we can be more present and filled with joy. There's a lot of things that are on our list that were added by other people. Expectations things. We saw our mom do things. We saw our mother-in-law do things that we see in society. Things we see on Instagram things. People have suggested to us. There are so many things on our list. This. Audit is too. All the things on the list and then say, Hey, guess what? You're a grownup. And you get to decide what you want on your list. You literally get to decide, and we are going to make a plan and we're going to edit and we're going to do all this stuff. It's so fun. Once you give yourself that permission that you get to decide. And so I am cheering you on. I know that this has been a lot. If you have any questions, please reach out and let me know. I would love to walk through this process. I am currently writing a book about. Seasons and editing your life. And so you will be able to slowly read through it, have the prompts. But for right now, I'm doing a podcast forum and I am really grateful for this time to share. I would love to hear any feedback, anything that triggered you or prompted you to ask an interesting, curious question. How are you feeling? Let me know.