ARE YOU A THERMOMETER -or- THERMOSTAT?
On this episode of The Karen Kenney Show, you’re going to get a chance to discover if you’re a thermometer kind of person -or- a thermostat kind of person.
Basically, a thermometer just records the temperature. It registers the warm or cold degrees of the room it’s in and lets you know what’s happening outside of you and around you. It’s a reflector of a space.
While a thermostat actually sets and changes the temperature. It has control and can affect the world around it.
To illustrate this point, and to come at it from a different angle, I’ll first share a personal story about encountering different types of people - some warm and welcoming, and others cold and off-putting.
Then I’ll dive deeper into things, by drawing inspiration from the originator of this concept, Dr. Henry Hitt Crane, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who also did a sermon about it.
I explore how rather than just passively reacting to the environment around you like a thermometer, we get to be a "thermostat" who can work to change or improve the environment or community it finds itself in.
The core message is that we have the power to choose who and how we want to be. Instead of being reactive to society – we can be proactive and actually transform it!
Developing a Daily Spiritual Practice (DSP) can also help you train your mind to be more aware and intentional.
Whether it's meditation, prayer, or simply setting an intention each morning, you can learn to be a thermostat - someone who transforms the temperature of their environment through love, empathy, kindness, warmth, and positive energy!
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Thermometer vs. Thermostat
• Choose Your Energy Wisely
• Be Proactive, Not Reactive
• Set Your Inner Temperature
• Make History, Don’t Be Made By It
• DSP + Mind Training
• You Control Your Thermostat
• Transform Society Through Love
• The Nest - Group Mentoring Program
BIO:
Karen Kenney is a certified Spiritual Mentor, Writer, Integrative Change Worker, Coach and Hypnotist. She’s known for her dynamic storytelling, her sense of humor, her Boston accent, and her no-BS, down-to-earth approach to Spirituality and transformational work.
KK is a wicked curious human being, a life-long learner, and has been an entrepreneur for over 20 years! She’s also a yoga teacher of 24+ years, a Certified Gateless Writing Instructor, and an author, speaker, retreat leader, and the host of The Karen Kenney Show podcast.
She coaches both the conscious + unconscious mind using practical Neuroscience, Subconscious Reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis/Change Work, and Spiritual Mentorship. These tools help clients to regulate their nervous systems, remove blocks, rewrite stories, rewire beliefs, and reimagine what’s possible in their lives and business!
Karen encourages people to deepen their connection to Self, Source and Spirit in down-to-earth and actionable ways and wants them to have their own lived experience with spirituality and to not just “take her word for it”.
She helps people to shift their minds from fear to Love - using compassion, storytelling and humor. Her work is effective, efficient, memorable, and fun!
KK’s been a student of A Course in Miracles for close to 30 years, has been vegan for over 20 years, and believes that a little kindness can make a big difference.
KK WEBSITE: www.karenkenney.com
Transcript
Hey you guys, welcome to the Karen Kenney show. I am wicked excited to be here today, and I'm just going to dive right in. I'm going to call this episode. Are you
Karen Kenney:a thermometer or a thermostat? Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? Stay tuned. Stay tuned to find out, because you're going to get a chance to discover if you're a
Karen Kenney:thermometer kind of person or a thermostat kind of person. And I'm going to come at this concept. I'm going to use a couple of different ways to explain it. I'm going to
Karen Kenney:look at it from a couple of different angles. So first, of course, I'm going to share a personal story, because I always tell a little story. And then I'm also going
Karen Kenney:to share a little quick excerpt from a sermon from one of the main members of my spiritual team, dr, Martin Luther King, Jr, so Alright, there's this theory, right?
Karen Kenney:There's this theory that says there are two kinds of people in the world, a thermometer, kind of person in a thermostat. Now, as soon as I see something like this, of course, I
Karen Kenney:get wicked curious. I really am not the kind of person that just loves to throw around theories and stuff like that and not give credit where they come from. Now I have
Karen Kenney:heard the thermometer thermostat thing be credited from everybody, from Simon Sinek to friggin strength and conditioning coaches, you Lowell or something like that. But I
Karen Kenney:actually tracked it back to Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, who talked about this concept in 1954 but then I got even more curious, and I was like, Well, is this his original
Karen Kenney:thought, or did he get it from somebody else? And it was fascinating, because, you know me, I love to give credit. So I found and I'm holding this up. If you're not
Karen Kenney:watching your I'll describe it. I'm holding up a wicked old like photocopy of a newspaper. And this newspaper is called the BG news, like literally, like the bee, gees,
Karen Kenney:like the band. It's called the B G news, spelled the same way. And this article comes from Wednesday, June 18, 1947 and so this concept of the thermometer versus the
Karen Kenney:thermostat goes all the way back to 1947 and it actually came from a pasta called Dr Henry hit crane. And he was a pastor, not only in Detroit, but he was also in
Karen Kenney:Massachusetts. And he graduated, I think he was in the School of Theology from my alma mater, Boston University. So I thought that was kind of cool. So I'm going to share
Karen Kenney:like, where he's coming from and where Dr King was coming from in a moment. But first, let me just lay down some basics. Then I'm going to tell you a little story and how
Karen Kenney:this applies to you and can be really helpful for you, and what's going on, not only in your personal life, but in the world. Okay? So here's the thing, this
Karen Kenney:theory that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are thermometers. Now think about what a thermometer does. A thermometer tells you the temperature, okay? And then
Karen Kenney:there's the thermostat, and the thermostat actually sets the temperature. And this is where I just want to jump in really quickly and tell you a little story. Now, remember,
Karen Kenney:I'm going to come at this concept of thermostat and thermometer from a couple of different points of view. And hopefully one of these is going to really hopefully I'm
Karen Kenney:not wasting time, but I found this really interesting and helpful. So okay, so I've been looking for a space to do some in person yoga. Again, I had a space. I stopped
Karen Kenney:using that space, um, and so, and then I transitioned to just doing some online yoga classes. And then I'm like, I'm ready to get back in person with people. So I've been
Karen Kenney:looking all over God's creation for a new space. So I've been meeting new people. I've met some realtors. I've met some people who already rent space in the building. I've met
Karen Kenney:people who sublet from a building. And, like, I've just been going around, like, getting my getting right up in people's business, and finding out, like, what's,
Karen Kenney:what's the deal, right? And what I have discovered is is this really fascinating thing. There are certain people that you meet, and as soon as you come into their
Karen Kenney:presence and you connect, right, whether it's like literally just seeing their face to their first hello to then standing in a hallway with them, or whatever, there are
Karen Kenney:people who greet you in a really warm way, and then there are people who are really kind of like cold and standoffish and just not warm and welcoming at all. And it's been
Karen Kenney:really fascinating over the past couple of weeks to. Uh, meeting a bunch of new people like totally new people, like strangers, right? I've also reconnected with some
Karen Kenney:people that I have known, but maybe we didn't know each other super well, right? Maybe we cross paths in a certain community, a yoga community, or whatever. But I had
Karen Kenney:this one particular experience where I was looking at a space in a building and trying to determine if this room, this space, was gonna work for me. Now, the real to kid, he
Karen Kenney:was, like a young kid. He's like, 24 years old, just really sweet, just like tall, thin, gangly. He's a ginger, you know, just like just started his real estate career.
Karen Kenney:He's been at it for like, a year, and he was like, showing me these two spots in this building, and I was trying to determine if these things were going to work for me.
Karen Kenney:Okay, the first day I'm there, right as I'm coming into the building, I see this little dog sitting in the window, and I'm like, so psyched, because I'm like, as soon as I see
Karen Kenney:a dog, I'm like, Yes, this is great. It's going to be fun. And the dog was the dog of one of the owners of this particular business that rented also in this building.
Karen Kenney:And they're basically like, Hey, this is Jake from State Farm, right? So the dog's name is Jake. The little sign in the window, this is Jake from State Farm. He's wicked
Karen Kenney:friendly. Come on in and say hi. And I'm like, Oh my god. So I go in, and I'm pointing at him before I'm even in the building, and the women who are in the
Karen Kenney:office can see me, and they're laughing because I'm going, like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Like a dog, a dog. And so when I get inside the building, I say hi to
Karen Kenney:the real estate guy, and I said, hi. I don't mean to be rude, Karen, but like, I gotta pet this dog. So he's like, Oh yeah, yeah, go ahead. So I open their door, Jake comes
Karen Kenney:out the sweetest little, sweetest, cutest little guy, and we have a moment. And then the women in the office are wicked nice to me. They're smiling at me. They say hello.
Karen Kenney:They're like, telling me about their experience being in the building, like, wicked nice, right? Okay, go down the hallway, check out the space, and then have
Karen Kenney:a great time with this kid. Like, he is so nice, he's curious, he's open, he's like, trying to be so helpful, just really kind, you know, love this kid. Okay, fast forward.
Karen Kenney:I come back the next day because this time, I've come back with my yoga mats, because I want to lay them out and see if they'll fit in the space. Now, this time, he's like, I
Karen Kenney:get there before him. The the insurance people and Jake are not there, so I'm just standing in the hallway by myself, like with my yoga mats leaning up against the wall,
Karen Kenney:because I don't want to go into the room, you know, until he gets there. I'm trying to be respectful, because my my normal instinct is just like, you know, just open the door,
Karen Kenney:whatever, and go in and stop measuring. And while I'm standing there, this other person comes out of their unit. Now there's only, like, I think there's 12345, there's like,
Karen Kenney:six or seven spots in this building, and nobody else is in the building. So this woman comes out, she looks at me, looks down at my yoga mats in the hallway, looks back
Karen Kenney:up at me, and her face is giving me like nothing, like no warmth, no Hello. Fact, she's just kind of making a face at me, and so I recognize right away what's happening.
Karen Kenney:I'm like, This is not a warm and fuzzy person. This is somebody who is blasting. So because we're talking about the vomit is in thermostats, I'm going to make my point. So
Karen Kenney:she is not blasting, like warm and fuzzy towards me at all. And I imagine she's like, okay, she steps out into the hallway, and he is a stranger, like, with yoga mats, so to
Karen Kenney:try to, like, explain to her so she can, like, let down her God and, like, not be so, like, weird towards me. I say, I said, Oh, Hi. I'm Karen. I'm like, waiting for so and
Karen Kenney:so, and he's gonna show me the room, you know, and he's gonna be here any minute. And she looks at me, doesn't say hello back. And I often talk about how there are people who
Karen Kenney:smile with their mouths and not their eyes, and it was so interesting watching her brain and her face do this thing where, like, I think some part of her social conditioning
Karen Kenney:was telling her that she should probably be nice to me and try to smile, but like her face, could not hold on to the smile. So she started to, like half smile. And then she
Karen Kenney:crunched up her face again, and she looks at me, and she goes, Are you going to be doing yoga in here? And I was like, Oh my god. So immediately, right, I feel like this
Karen Kenney:reactive, all right. I feel this thermometer
Karen Kenney:like in my body come up, which is Vicky with two K's from Lawrence, and Vicky's not having it right. And so I immediately feel like the temperatures start to go up. And I
Karen Kenney:realize, like, Okay, well, I'm not going to be rude back to her, like I have been doing this work long enough that I can most of. The time, if not, like most of the time, I
Karen Kenney:can stop myself. I can I can feel myself reacting. And I'm like, Oh, I don't want to react. I'm going to choose who I want to be. I want to be a thermometer. I want to set my
Karen Kenney:own temperature. I want to set my own tone. I don't want to just react to her cold temperature by throwing it back it up, right? I'm like, I'm going to respond. And I
Karen Kenney:so I just said, still with a smile on my face, being really friendly, I said, Oh, I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do in here. I might do yoga, I might do some
Karen Kenney:spiritual mentoring. I might do some Thai Yoga massage. Like, I'm not sure yet, and this does not make it any better for her, because you can just tell, like she I don't
Karen Kenney:know what the deal is. I don't know what her problem is. I don't know if she's just liked having this unit next to her, like, fucking empty, forever, whatever. But she was not,
Karen Kenney:was not being kind. And so the the temperature of that room was chi, like, chili, chili, chili, chili, Burr. Like, Burr, Burr. Like, put on, put on my pocket
Karen Kenney:because it is freaking gold in here. I was like, Oh, interesting. And so she starts to walk past me down the hall, still with this look on her face. And I said, How do you
Karen Kenney:like being here now, I have to admit that's me being a little fresh, like I can tell that she's like, kind of not into it, and I'm just like, gonna now make her, like,
Karen Kenney:respond to me. So I was being a little bit of a brat, and I just said, so how do you like being in the building? It seems like it's kind of empty, huh? She's like, well,
Karen Kenney:not really, you know. And she just says something to me about one of the rooms, or husband rents it, whatever. And I was like, Oh, okay. And I was like, Well, do you like
Karen Kenney:being here? How long have you been here? And I could tell like it was taking, like it was killing her to have to talk to me, because she was so not happy. I don't know what the
Karen Kenney:deal is. I don't know this woman. I've never met her before. She has no idea who I am, but it was just like a really weird thing. And I thought to myself that I'm gonna get
Karen Kenney:to the point. And so, you know, and then, and then, in contrast, you know, the realtor kid comes around the corner and he's like, Hey, and he was so sweet and so happy to see
Karen Kenney:me, and he's like, that was really weird. I was like, Yeah, you think he's like, I'm sorry. Like, no, it's not your fault. You know, she's clearly just, like, whatever.
Karen Kenney:Maybe she's having a day, maybe she's having a mood or a moment. But here's my point, um, we are responsible for the vibe, the energy, the the setting, right? We are responsible
Karen Kenney:for how we are setting our thermostat when we go into a situation, when we go into a room. So we can either be thermometers and be reactive to the people around us and
Karen Kenney:what's happening and just kind of being passive and tossed about, or we can choose to kind of set the temp and set the tone. Now, me, I like to be a warm fuzzy towards
Karen Kenney:people. You know, I have had some really good teachers in my life, and some of my best teachers have been my dogs. And when I think about like Abby, like Abby girl, when
Karen Kenney:I think about no Buckminster biscuits, buckets, who I got Bucky or buckets, when I think about bun she right. When I think about all my animals, all my dogs, when you
Karen Kenney:walk into a room, they are always so happy to see you. They get up, they make a big deal. I don't care if I just like, if I went downstairs right now, bunchy would, like,
Karen Kenney:jump up and spin around and wag his tail and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle and make little noises. He's like, so delighted, so delighted that I'm back in his presence,
Karen Kenney:that I have reappeared, you know. And we could learn a lot. We could learn a lot from our dogs about how to welcome people and greet people. Now, I know some of you are
Karen Kenney:probably listening to this, and they're like, I don't know. Okay, my dog jumps on everybody and like, whatever. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So some, some, some animals are maybe
Karen Kenney:a little too enthusiastic. Maybe need a little training, a little support on how to regulate, like, when somebody comes into the room, or whatever. But I know double A man
Karen Kenney:hands, if you know what I'm talking about. I said, I feel like I walk into the room and I'm like, getting an Academy Award for just appearing right? I could look like shit. I
Karen Kenney:gotta just rolled out of bed. I could have been, like, just coming in from, like, a hot, sweaty run, like, you know, you're just like, what? And they don't care. They don't
Karen Kenney:care how you look, how you smell, like what's going down they don't know about you. Know your struggles and your all they know is like your back and you are the light of
Karen Kenney:their life, and they are so happy to see you. And I thought to myself, what kind of a different world would we live in if the temperature that we set ourselves at was the
Karen Kenney:was the temperature of love, was that warm and welcoming vibe, and that when you step into people's presence, that they can feel that welcoming, they can feel that
Karen Kenney:inclusivity. They can feel that they are that they belong there, and that they are welcome there. You know what I mean, to create a space that at least offers like,
Karen Kenney:you know, a sense of no harm and safety, right? Yeah, and I will also say that some of the other people that I met, they were lovely to me, and it was so nice to, like,
Karen Kenney:meet new people who were, like, open and curious and whatever. So that's just kind of like the little personal story. Now I want to turn to another slightly different way
Karen Kenney:and deeper way of looking at this. So step number one is like, check yourself, like, you know when you're walking into a room. So one of the things that I have tried to do
Karen Kenney:for a really long time, and this is this is something that I learned from one of you know, my friend and my mentor, my spiritual godmother, Mary Ann Williamson, way back in
Karen Kenney:the day, like in my early 20s, like she told me, you know, if you're, you know, I mean, obviously this, these are things that she said to other humans and in her books and
Karen Kenney:stuff like that. But I'll never forget her, you know, talking with me and saying, like, you know who you're being when you enter into a room, like, makes a difference, like,
Karen Kenney:how you're holding yourself and the energy that you're putting out there. And she would always say, like, if you're going to go into a space and for whatever it's for, whether
Karen Kenney:you're leading a class or about to speak or having to have a difficult conversation with somebody, or maybe you're going into like, trying to work out a business deal or a
Karen Kenney:negotiation or a contract, like whatever the thing is, like, the energy and the intention in which you go into that room, it makes a difference. And she would always say, like,
Karen Kenney:just blast love. Like, send love. She would say it, send love in front of you, you know, send love out in front of you. And every person that you walk by, and every person in
Karen Kenney:that room, you know, she's like, You don't have to say it out loud. Like, you don't, you don't have to, like, seem like a crazy person, right? You don't have to walk into
Karen Kenney:the room and announce, I'm blasting you all with love. But this is a really powerful thing to do, and it's something I've been doing, like, since then. So before I go
Karen Kenney:into, like, a yoga class or anything, I get on stage, or I'm doing a whatever, you know, I always ask, you know that that the that my that I have guidance, basically, right,
Karen Kenney:first I blast love in all directions. And because I am not omnipotent, I don't know what the best outcome is for every single person involved. We, of course, have our
Karen Kenney:hopes, our dreams, what we wish would happen, but I don't know what the best thing can be. So I always just go in and I say, you know, hey, may I be of service, may this
Karen Kenney:be helpful, may everybody here, like, feel, feel the love that I am sending in their direction. And this can be a very powerful thing to that that thermostat is really
Karen Kenney:different than pulling your hands back, putting your dukes up, being cold, being like, whatever, and like, you know, I always thought it was fascinating too. Like Gandhi,
Karen Kenney:he used to say, like, he's like, when he would bump up against people who are trying to push back from him, like in negotiations and stuff. He's like, That's when he showed
Karen Kenney:up as his best, because he would just meet their intolerance and their attitude and their hatred and their stuff. He would just meet it with love. He would just meet it
Karen Kenney:with kindness. He would just meet it, you know. And it was really disarming. So I thought we thought that was really fascinating. Okay, let's fast forward now to
Karen Kenney:this whole thing with Doctor King, and then with with Doctor Henry hit crane. So Doctor, Doctor crane, back in 1947 he was actually giving the commencement address for the
Karen Kenney:class of let's see. I don't know where they were, but it was a class of 1947, for a commencement address. I'm not sure what school it was, but this is what he said. I
Karen Kenney:thought this was fascinating. First of all, the title of his address was literally thermostats versus thermometers, or thermometers versus thermostats, and he says
Karen Kenney:this,
Karen Kenney:a thermometer conforms completely to the environmental situation in which it finds itself, while the thermostat is an instrument with all the characteristics of
Karen Kenney:the thermometer plus the element of control, and that right there is key stay like just squirrel that away in your little library in your brain. So I always I got a little I got
Karen Kenney:a little library in my head, and my little my little guys are put the Philo facts like just Dewey Decimal System. Put it right in there. Okay, it has the element of control.
Karen Kenney:And then he went on to say this. He says thermometers are those who act as though their chief object in life is to do whatever is, quote, unquote, being done. Their major
Karen Kenney:passion is to be popular with the crowd. He said, the saviors of the world are the thermostats. And I think this is really, really powerful, because the thermostats are
Karen Kenney:the ones who basically say, I'm not going to conform. I'm going to decide how things should be. So if I see something that's unjust, I'm not just going to conform,
Karen Kenney:because this is how it's always been done. I'm going to actually do something about it. And. This, no doubt, must have inspired Dr Martin Luther King, because in his sermon
Karen Kenney:from november of 1954 he had a sermon called the transformed non conformist. The transformed non conformist. And this is what he had to say, I love this. I love this. He
Karen Kenney:says, I'm sure that many of you have had the experience of dealing with thermometers and thermostats. The thermometer merely records the temperature. If it is 70 or 80 degrees,
Karen Kenney:it registers that and that is all on the other hand, the thermostat changes the the temperature. If it is too cool in the house, you simply push the thermostat up a little,
Karen Kenney:and it makes it warmer. And this is from his speech, he says. And so the Christian, because he was talking, he was a sermon in church, he says. And so the Christian is
Karen Kenney:called upon not to be like a thermometer conforming to the temperature of his society, but he must be like a thermostat serving to transform the temperature of his
Karen Kenney:society. Oh, my God, I love this so much, especially when you look at all the insanity that's going on in the world right now, there are going to be some people that just
Karen Kenney:throw up their hands and they say, this is just the way that it is, and there's nothing we can do, and we're just going to go in and we're going to conform. And then there's the
Karen Kenney:thermostats that are like, no, no, no, no, we're not going to do that. We are going to transform the temperature. And this bullshit that I see that's happening in society right
Karen Kenney:now. So instead of just being a thermometer that is passive and is simply reflecting what's going on out there, we get to be proactive. We get to respond to what's
Karen Kenney:happening out there, and we get to work to make change or to improve things. Because Dr King's sentiment is basically saying this, you can either make history or you can be
Karen Kenney:made by it. And he said that we're often made by history rather than making it, but our job is to go out and to make history rather than be made by it. So your another
Karen Kenney:way of saying this is like, this, I hope you're picking up what I'm putting down, because I think right now a lot of people are just feeling completely like
Karen Kenney:overwhelmed, and they're just sitting there like, Oh no, we're doomed. Like, this is how it is, and there's nothing we can do about it. And all we can do is reflect back the
Karen Kenney:crazy that's happening and the fear that's happening right now, and it's a very passive way to be right. And I think that we want to be the thermometers. We want to be the ones
Karen Kenney:who like go in and say, Hey, I'm taking the temperature of the room, and I don't like what I'm seeing. I don't like what's going on. And it goes back to like me being in the
Karen Kenney:hallway. Now, I could have met frigid Jane with more frigidity. I could have just met her with coldness and meanness and like, I could have just, boom, you know, ice cube to
Karen Kenney:ice cube. But I was like, Oh no, I'm going to turn up my son. I'm going to turn up my light. Right? Of course, in miracles tells us we are the light of the world. A cloud
Karen Kenney:does not put out the sun. So even though I was trying to be the sun and she was trying to be a cloud, I was like, Man, I'm just going to peek around the edges of this
Karen Kenney:cloud. I'm just going to dial up my temperature a little bit. I am going to set the tone for this interaction. I don't have to be at the mercy of how she's behaving and
Karen Kenney:how she's treating me. I don't have to respond right with fear or with attitude or with my ego, I could choose to respond with love. Now, of course, in miracles tells us
Karen Kenney:that everything is either people are either showing us love, right, or they're calling out for us. They're either extending love or they are crying out for help. And the only
Karen Kenney:sane response to somebody who is showing you love is to show love back. But the other only sane response is when somebody's crying out for love, and people do it in a lot of
Karen Kenney:different and difficult ways, is to respond with love. And that doesn't mean you become a doormat. You know? I didn't just sit there and be like, Oh, I'm just going to let this
Karen Kenney:lady to be rude to me, right? But I also didn't let her change or choose how I was going to be. I got to decide how I wanted to show up. And so you know, your experience
Karen Kenney:and attitude does not have to be at the mercy of what others outside of you are doing and saying you get to wake up in the morning. In fact, there's a whole like
Karen Kenney:exercise of the Course of Miracles that says you wake up in the morning and you get to decide the kind of day that you're going to have. You certainly get to decide the kind
Karen Kenney:of person that you're going to be. You get to choose your attitude. You get to choose how you're going to speak to people, how you're going to be with. People, right?
Karen Kenney:You're going to get to decide, am I going to be the kind of person that wants to kind of shit on other people's parade? Or, if it's raining, do I want to help them hold up an
Karen Kenney:umbrella? Right? Like, who am I going to be, and how am I going to be in the world? And one of the really powerful and fascinating things, and I think fantastic things is that
Karen Kenney:when you start to develop a DSP, a daily spiritual practice, and whether your daily spiritual practice involves prayer or meditation or mantra or contemplation or
Karen Kenney:chanting or being in mother nature or doing yoga or doing devotional reading or going to church like whatever, going to synagogue, going to temple, going to whatever, whatever
Karen Kenney:you do, and doing your rosary beads, right, whatever it is
Karen Kenney:when you start to develop a DSP, and especially if you're doing something like the daily lessons of A Course in Miracles, or if you're doing some form of meditation,
Karen Kenney:what's really powerful is what you're actually doing is mind training. You are learning to place your focus, place your attention, place your mind where you want to
Karen Kenney:place it. We are choosing to be conscious and intentional, intentional, and we're choosing to pay attention to whether we are being reactive or whether we are being
Karen Kenney:proactive. So to be reactive is to be a thermometer. We are simply just being at the mercy of the temperature, of what's happening, and whether that's in your home,
Karen Kenney:whether that's in your relationships, whether that's the people you're around at work, whether it's in the logic culture, whether it's what's happening with the
Karen Kenney:government in the world, right, the society, okay, versus right, being a thermostat, which says, No, I'm going to set the tone. I'm going to decide who I'm going to be, how
Karen Kenney:I'm going to be and how I'm going to respond when I encounter other people who are trying to set a tone of racism or misogyny or sexism or xenophobia or whatever, whenever
Karen Kenney:we can, whenever we're bumping up against people who are not trying to do the love thing, the people who are trying to do the hate and the greed thing and the racist
Karen Kenney:thing and the unkind thing, the not inclusive thing, when we're bumping up against that we don't have to be the mercy of their temperature. We get to decide to be
Karen Kenney:our own personal thermostat. And it's by having practices, having spiritual practices, having support in a community of people who are trying to be the love that
Karen Kenney:they actually add. They are trying to be the light of the world. They are trying to be like like, when I think about the Mister Rogers and Bob Ross and and the Sesame
Karen Kenney:Street right, the places and the programs and the people that are trying to put more compassion and kindness and love and empathy and integrity into the world. So we don't
Karen Kenney:have to be tossed about like, Oh, now it's hot, and now it's cold and oh my god. And what are we going to do? We get to say, no. This is how I'm setting my mind. This is I
Karen Kenney:am I am dialing my thing, right? I am dialing my thing for warmth, for inclusivity, for connectivity, for community, for creativity, for love, for
Karen Kenney:kindness, for compassion, for mercy, for understanding, for deep listening, whatever the thing is. So we don't have to get tossed about. We get to decide, and if we find
Karen Kenney:ourselves in a situation or in a country or in a whatever, where we do not, like what's going on, we don't have to just, like, pull the covers over our head and just bundle
Karen Kenney:ourselves up and go in our own little, like, corner of the world. We get to say, Nope, I have a choice, and I'm going to be proactive, you know? And it goes back again
Karen Kenney:to what, to what he says, you know, we are called not to be like a thermometer conforming to the temperature of his society. We must be like a thermostat
Karen Kenney:serving to transform the temperature of the society. So if you find yourself in situations where it's been a little, as I always say, it's been a little chilly, maybe
Karen Kenney:you can turn up your thermostat and dial up a little bit more love and also be hyper aware, like be really aware the vibe, the energy, the temperature that you are
Karen Kenney:bringing into the relationships and the spaces that you occupy. How are you greeting people? Are you being open and welcoming and inclusive? These are important things to
Karen Kenney:ponder, especially if you're somebody who has a business, especially if you're somebody who's trying to connect, or maybe find a patent in life. Maybe you're looking
Karen Kenney:for your sweetie and you want to, you know, like, what are you putting out? And you know, it can be. Really easy to just feel like that. I thought, this is really
Karen Kenney:interesting, too. I just interrupted myself because I looked down and saw this. So Dr, dr crane says that the ramifications of these principles. He was looking at them in
Karen Kenney:four significant realms, social behavior, politics, education and religion. And he was basically saying, you know, he says, in politics, he pointed out that these two
Karen Kenney:principles of life are dramatically revealed. Listen to this. This is so fucking powerful. He says, dictatorships assume that virtually all men are thermometers that they
Karen Kenney:will change with the conditions into which they are put. While democracies, hello. Let me say that again. While democracies assume that all men are political thermostats,
Karen Kenney:meaning we are going to decide. We are not just going to say, like, oh, you say this is how it is, and we're just going to kind of like because this is what happened in Nazi
Karen Kenney:Germany. There were a bunch of thermometers, and we needed more thermostats. You know what I'm saying? He also went on to say that, in regard to these principles, how
Karen Kenney:they operate in education and in my teachers out there. Listen to this. This is fascinating. He stressed the point that thermo metric education, so you know, is is
Karen Kenney:counterfeit. It emphasizes indoctrination and regimentation, while thermo static meaning being thermostat. Education seeks to develop insight discrimination and critical
Karen Kenney:judgment. Oh, my God, this is so freaking good. And he says, he says, Finally, in regards to religion, he pointed out that all the highest expressions of the thermostatic
Karen Kenney:religion is called Christianity, he says, the thermostat which makes, he says, quite contrary declarations and demands. What cannot be endured, he said, must be cured. I
Karen Kenney:hear so much of Martin Luther King Jr in this as well, right? What cannot be endured must be cured. And this is like to endure something is to be the thermometer. To cure
Karen Kenney:it is to be the thermostat. So we have an opportunity to get really real with ourselves and to check in and to ask who and how we have been being again to yourself,
Karen Kenney:are you just being tossed about by your mood or your circumstances or what's happening, or somebody wasn't being nice to you, or you didn't get your way, or your sweetie didn't
Karen Kenney:give you enough attention, or murmur like whatever, are we going to let ourselves just be tossed about by what's happening the external? Are we going to be at the effect
Karen Kenney:of what we think the causes, which is out there, or are we going to be causal? Are we going to be thermostats? Are we going to set the temperature in the tone and say I am the
Karen Kenney:captain of my own ship? I'm going to decide how I'm going to be I'm going to be proactive instead of reactive, and I am going to get to decide exactly who I am,
Karen Kenney:despite what somebody out there might be trying to do to me, despite what somebody on social media might be trying to say to me, we do not have to be at the mercy of that.
Karen Kenney:And this is why having a DSP, a daily spiritual practice, having a spiritual mentor, hello, raising my hand open for business, or being a part of a community,
Karen Kenney:whether that's again, your yoga class, your church or something like the NES, my spiritual mentoring group program, right? So if you want to find out more about how I
Karen Kenney:help people with this becoming more thermostats than the mom it is, you can always go to Karen kenney.com, check out all that stuff. Of course, you can always keep
Karen Kenney:listening to the podcast. I hope you found this episode helpful. And I also understand that there have might have been times in your life when you have been more
Karen Kenney:thermometer than thermostat. And I think that one of the good things about being a thermometer sometimes in small doses. Although let me put it this way, I take that
Karen Kenney:back. Let me because I just, I just realized. So my thermostat downstairs in my house, it will not only tell me the temperature of the room, I can also tab the
Karen Kenney:power to set the temperature of the room. So it's helpful to be able to read the temperature as well. That's the one thermometer. Thing that's good is you can
Karen Kenney:walk into a space and you can kind of suss out what's happening in that room. You can feel the vibe, you can feel the energy, you can feel the temperature. You can be
Karen Kenney:sensitive enough to understand what's happening, what has been happening. And we don't have to form to it, though. We can decide like, yeah, I. What's going down
Karen Kenney:here. I don't like what they're trying
Karen Kenney:to do. I'm not going to put up with that. I'm not going to let you tell that racist joke. I'm not going to let you treat my friend that way. I'm going to get between
Karen Kenney:you physically and that other person, because what you're trying to do is wrong, right? We get to be the thermostats, but it's helpful to be a thermostat that can
Karen Kenney:also take the temperature of the room and to know what's going on around them. So I hope this has been helpful in some way. I'd love to hear from you. I always love to hear from
Karen Kenney:you guys. And thank you to those of you who responded to my My Care Bear episode that was really fun, hearing from some of you about like, what your belly badges were and
Karen Kenney:what your Care Bears. So please, if you listen to the show. I just take, take 30 seconds, take a minute out of your day. Let me know if you listened, if you liked it,
Karen Kenney:what your favorite pot was, if something stood out or certainly reflect back to me your own awareness is your own ahas, your own insights, because I love hearing from
Karen Kenney:you guys. Okay, wherever you go, may you leave the people, the animals, the environment, the place, the planet and yourself better than how you previously
Karen Kenney:found it. Wherever you go, may you and your energy and your just your vibe and your kindness and your love and you being the thermostat, be a blessing. Bye, bye.
