SOMEONE IS YOU
EP334 – SOMEONE IS YOU
On this episode of The Karen Kenney Show, I talk about what happened when I finally decided to stop grumbling about the trash I kept seeing on my running route and actually do something about it!
I share how my sweetie and I run or walk in our rural neighborhood, and how seeing litter along the road always bugged me.
Instead of just judging others for it, I remembered my own past (hello, former cigarette-butt-flicker here! 🫣) and realized it was time to take action myself.
I also dive into the story of how a wicked fun childhood memory - being part of the Thompson Tigers Clean Team in fifth grade - came rushing back to me.
I even found my old “clean team” patch and wore it proudly as I set out with trash bags and gloves to clean up my neighborhood.
Along the way, I met some wonderful people, like Jessie, an older woman who told me she tries to "do a kindness every day", and who said I inspired her to go out and do the same at her end of the street. Yay!
That moment reminded me how our actions can ripple out and encourage others.
Throughout the episode, I reflect on how easy it is to focus on what others are doing wrong, but how much more powerful it is to look at what we can do ourselves to create change.
Inspired by a teaching from Swami Kripalu, I talk about the importance of focusing on strengthening new positive traits and virtues, rather than just fighting against the old negatives.
Whether it’s picking up trash, spreading kindness, or simply being a little more compassionate, we all have the power to make a difference - no matter how small it seems.
So, if you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “Someone ought to do something about that,” maybe that someone is you!
I encourage you to look for the good, "do a kindness", and leave every place and person a little better than you found them.
Thanks for tuning in, and if this episode inspired you, please share it with someone and help me spread a little more love in the world. ❤️
KK’S KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Noticing a problem in your community might be a sign that you’re the one to help fix it.
• Taking action, even in small ways (like picking up trash), can inspire others to do the same.
• It’s easy to judge others, but a little self-reflection can reveal our own past mistakes and help us to act with more compassion.
• Focusing on strengthening new positive traits and virtues - is way more effective than dwelling on past negative
• When you feel frustrated that “someone” should do something, remember that someone might be you
• Sharing positive actions and stories can encourage a ripple effect of goodness in your community.
• Everyday acts of kindness, no matter how small, can make a real difference for you, your family, your neighborhood and the greater world!
BIO:
Spiritual Mentor and writer Karen Kenney uses humor and dynamic storytelling to bring a down-to-earth, no-BS perspective to self-development.
Bringing together tools that coach the conscious and unconscious mind, Karen helps clients deepen their connections with Self, and discover their unique understandings of spirituality.
Her practice combines neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis, somatic work, spiritual mentoring, and other holistic modalities to help regulate the nervous system, examine internal narratives, remove blocks, and reimagine what’s possible.
A passionate yoga teacher, long-time student of A Course in Miracles, and Gateless Writing instructor, Karen is a frequent speaker and retreat leader. Via her programs The Quest and The Nest, she coaches both individuals and groups.
With The Karen Kenney Podcast, she encourages listeners to shift from a thought system of fear to one of love, compassion, and personal responsibility.
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Transcript
Hey you guys, welcome to the Karen Kenney show. I'm super
Speaker:duper excited to be here with you. And I just got done from
Speaker:doing a little bit of a project, which I'm wicked excited to tell
Speaker:you about. It kind of happened in a weird, quirky way. Like all
Speaker:things in my life tend to do. I always say s, t o, t, J,
Speaker:spiritual team on the job. Okay, so let me just dive right into
Speaker:this sucker. You might tell if you're watching this, I'm still
Speaker:a little shiny and sweaty from what I was just doing. Okay, so
Speaker:my sweetie and I at least about five days a week, we run. I he
Speaker:runs. He runs like eight miles. I run walk, right? So I kind of
Speaker:do whatever. But we have certain routes that we tend to do. And
Speaker:like anything, when you're running a certain route
Speaker:continuously, or often, you tend to see things if you're paying
Speaker:attention, if you're not zoning out, right, like sometimes when
Speaker:you're running like, you get in the zone and you're hyper focus,
Speaker:but a lot of times, if you're just even paying attention, you
Speaker:will start to notice things. And one of the things that I notice
Speaker:along so there's different routes in my neighborhood that
Speaker:that I run on, but there's one particular stretch of road
Speaker:called Oak Hill Road, and we live off of that street, and I
Speaker:often see trash, like, alongside the road, like in the bushes.
Speaker:Now, it's a very wooded area, right? So it's like, not even
Speaker:it's rural. I will say it's rural, it's not even Suburban. I
Speaker:mean, like, you know, you get your neighbors and stuff like
Speaker:that, but we're out in the woods, basically. And so I often
Speaker:see like, trash and stuff on the side of the road, and like,
Speaker:something inside of me, like, if you're watching my face right
Speaker:now, like I'm like, gripping my fingers and I'm squinting one of
Speaker:my eyes, like, oh, like, it hurts me. It hurts me when I see
Speaker:trash on the ground. And you know, the first, of course, the
Speaker:first thing that the ego mind likes to do is it likes to stop,
Speaker:like, judging people and be like, Oh, those damn little bugs
Speaker:and people just throwing shit out their windows. And how can
Speaker:they do that? You get, like, wicked judgy, like, super duper
Speaker:judgy in your head. And one of the things I had to stop myself
Speaker:is ask myself, like, Well, hey, because whenever you're tempted,
Speaker:this is a good exercise. PS, whenever you attempted to judge
Speaker:other people, you know, of course, in miracles, I'm
Speaker:paraphrasing, of course, in miracles kind of taught me, you
Speaker:know, this, this thing, this idea of, whenever you're tempted
Speaker:to judge somebody else, ask yourself, would I ever accuse
Speaker:myself of the same thing?
Speaker:Oh, my God. Like, have you Hey, hey, knucklehead, hey, judgy
Speaker:mcjudgy pants over there. Have you ever done this, right? And I
Speaker:remember back in the day when I was a smoker, you know, and we
Speaker:would just flick, I'm doing the little flicking that we would
Speaker:just flick our butts right out the window, you know, like, and
Speaker:we had no regard, we had no regard for Mother Earth, you
Speaker:know? I mean, then obviously we got a little smarter, hopefully,
Speaker:and we started using our ashtrays in the car. And what's
Speaker:so funny is, when you think about it, it's like you had
Speaker:ashtrays in cars back then, which probably sounds foreign to
Speaker:some young people listening, right? We had ashtrays in cars.
Speaker:And I'm like, so we had ashtrays in the car, and we still flicked
Speaker:it out the window. Why? Because we didn't want the butts in our
Speaker:car. Why? Because they were kind of gross, and it's like, oh,
Speaker:okay, so we had the habit, and then we would still flick our
Speaker:butts out the window. Like, what the were we thinking? We weren't
Speaker:thinking. That's the answer. We weren't thinking. So whenever I
Speaker:get a little tempted, a little extra tempted to try to start
Speaker:judging people, because this is just what the ego mind does,
Speaker:right? It loves to keep us separate, like, from our
Speaker:brothers and sisters, from, you know, fellow beings. It loves to
Speaker:keep us separate from everything, and it loves to keep
Speaker:other people in guilt and shame and blame and then, because,
Speaker:then we get to be right, and we get to be special. So I know the
Speaker:racket that my ego likes to run. So I'm vigilant, right? Like, I
Speaker:vigilant, like, I keep a wicked close eye on that. Now, what I
Speaker:will say about this, though, is what I found really interesting,
Speaker:a couple of things that I thought were really interesting.
Speaker:The other thing, okay, well, the other thing is, we live in a
Speaker:town where you have to bring your trash yourself to the dump
Speaker:in conced, you know, they have trash pickup CON Kids. Whole
Speaker:rack of concats got another whole racket going on, because
Speaker:they force the residents of Concord to buy especially
Speaker:colored garbage bags that you have to go and buy. And they
Speaker:cost a certain amount, and that's the only way they'll pick
Speaker:up your trash, is if you're using the purple trash bag. So
Speaker:there's always something right. But anyways, we have to take our
Speaker:trash to the dump. And I think, in fairness, what happens a lot
Speaker:of the times is that people throw their trash in the back of
Speaker:their cabs of their trucks, and it blows out on the way to the
Speaker:dump. Okay, but here's where it gets interesting. I thought this
Speaker:was fascinating because I was like, okay, stop judging. People
Speaker:stop calling everybody litter bugs. Maybe it's because their
Speaker:stuff is shit is blowing out of the back of their truck on the
Speaker:way to the dump. But here's what's fascinating. Here's what
Speaker:I discovered today. What I discovered today is I was
Speaker:looking and watching. Is that like, Okay, imagine you're
Speaker:driving up a road, and it's like a house, right, with a lawn with
Speaker:a Yad, and then there's like a little section of woods, and
Speaker:then, like, you know, and there's a culvert, like off the
Speaker:road, like a culvert, like a ditch, and, you know, there's
Speaker:leaves and stuff in there, of course. Then it's like the next
Speaker:house, and then again, chunk of woods, culvert, Bubba, what I
Speaker:find fascinating is, if stuff is blowing out of the back of
Speaker:people's trucks, only air quotes only, I find it quite
Speaker:interesting. I think how. How interesting. I guess I'll just
Speaker:stick with that word that the trash only seems to blow out in
Speaker:the sections where it's nobody's lawn and it's just a chunk of
Speaker:woods. Now, one could argue that maybe, yeah, if it ends up on
Speaker:somebody's lawn, they go out and pick it up, but I just think
Speaker:it's interesting, and so I know, I know that a fair amount of
Speaker:people are chucking shit right out the window, whether it's
Speaker:laziness. They don't give a shit. They don't know any
Speaker:better. They aren't aware it blew out, whatever. Okay. Now
Speaker:the reason why I'm telling you all of this is that when I Okay,
Speaker:so I run this route, I see the trash. And what do we all do as
Speaker:humans? We'll see something that we don't like. Well, whether we
Speaker:see something that is just, we don't like it, or it's unfair,
Speaker:or there's no justice, or something is happening to an
Speaker:animal, a person, a place, and we're like, that's not right.
Speaker:That's not right. Someone should do something, someone ought to
Speaker:do something now, double A men. Hands me, if you have uttered
Speaker:these words at some point in your life, that's not right,
Speaker:that's not fair, that's not good, that's fucked up. Somebody
Speaker:ought to do something. Someone needs to do something. Okay,
Speaker:well, as I was like running this route and seeing this trash. And
Speaker:I had that thought, someone ought to do something. And then
Speaker:it occurs to me, Well, someone is you. Someone is you, meaning
Speaker:me. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna do this, and here's what I think
Speaker:about this, and we're gonna get we're gonna get it like, so stay
Speaker:with me. Okay, I often will say to myself, whoever is awake,
Speaker:whoever is aware and whoever is able, gets to do something. Now,
Speaker:the very first thing that I know, like, rumbles up inside of
Speaker:people. And I was going to call the episode, you know, being the
Speaker:bigger person, or the bigger person, right? So often people
Speaker:will see things and or be, like, in conflict with somebody, or
Speaker:there's something going on they don't like. And it's almost like
Speaker:an adult tantrum, right? We put it's like putting your hands on
Speaker:your hips and stomping your feet, and it's like, Why do I
Speaker:always have to be the bigger person? Why do I always have to
Speaker:be the one that does X, Y and Z? Why do I always have to be the
Speaker:one that says sorry first, and why do I always have to be the
Speaker:one? No? Why? Because whoever is, of course, in Miracle says
Speaker:whoever is Sana at the time, whoever is Santa at the time. To
Speaker:me, this is like whoever is clocking the thing, whoever
Speaker:notices the thing, so whoever is awake and aware and is paying
Speaker:attention and is able to do something about it. Why not you,
Speaker:and so often. Again, it's just a racket of the ego. The ego is
Speaker:like, Why do I have to do it? Why? Because you're the one who
Speaker:saw it, you're the one who recognized it, and you're the
Speaker:one who's bothered by it. So me as I'm like, again, running this
Speaker:route and seeing that, like the cans and like, all this stuff. I
Speaker:was like, That's it. I'm gonna do something about it. And then,
Speaker:you guys, it was like, this magical portal in my brain
Speaker:opened up, and I was like, Oh my God. And I had this memory. Now,
Speaker:when I was in, like, the fourth and fifth grade. I went to a
Speaker:school called the Thompson school. So I grew up in Lawrence
Speaker:mass, and then there were a few years where we moved to North
Speaker:Andover, and then we moved right back to Lawrence. But during
Speaker:those years, I spent two of those years at the Thompson
Speaker:School of North Andover. Now I'm pretty sure it was in fifth
Speaker:grade. In fifth grade I had, like, one. Of the best teachers
Speaker:I've ever had in my life. I've had a handful of those, Mr.
Speaker:Kellen. Mr. Mike Kellen. I loved, like, loved Mr. Kellen. I
Speaker:just thought he was the bee's knees, he was the cat's pajamas,
Speaker:he was the cat's meow. Like, I loved Mr. Kellen. And I don't
Speaker:know if it was Mr. Kellen that started it, but I think it was.
Speaker:But here's what I remember, all of a sudden, you guys, as I'm
Speaker:thinking about this trash and cleaning up the trash, and
Speaker:somebody's gonna do it, maybe that someone is you. All of a
Speaker:sudden, I would hear in my head the Thompson Tigers clean team.
Speaker:And it was like, Oh my God. You know how all of a sudden you
Speaker:remember something from your childhood? And I'm like, I'm
Speaker:grinning like an idiot right now, I was so excited. So in
Speaker:fifth grade, I think it was Mr. Kellyn, or it was a teacher
Speaker:initiative or a school initiative, but I see his brain
Speaker:burned on it. You know, his face burned on my brain. We started
Speaker:the Thompson Tigers clean team, and we even got little patches
Speaker:Okay, we got these little round patches, had little Tigers on
Speaker:them. And I thought to myself, Oh, my God. And then we would go
Speaker:out in the neighborhood and, like, we would clean things up.
Speaker:And, like, we got the thing. It was like, if you see something
Speaker:on the side of the road, piece of trash, like, pick it up. And
Speaker:that's like, you it's almost like, you know, I was never in
Speaker:the Girl Scouts or the Boy Scouts or anything like that.
Speaker:But this was like that, like you got a patch. And here's the
Speaker:thing, you guys, I keep I, I literally do not know. I amazed.
Speaker:I'm amazed by this. I honestly am amazed by this. By the time I
Speaker:was like, 40, I had moved 38 times. My childhood was a shit
Speaker:show. We moved so often. And then after my mother died, and,
Speaker:like, all these things happened, and I have no idea, through
Speaker:college and moving to California and moving like, I have no idea
Speaker:how I've kept things, but I have a box, and in that box I have,
Speaker:like, my projects from like, sixth grade with Mrs. Karen at
Speaker:the Weatherby. I have stuff from, like, I have stuff going
Speaker:all the way back. And you guys, I just knew in my heart of hats,
Speaker:I said to my sweetie. I was like, sweetie, I was on the
Speaker:Thompson Tigers clean team, and I had a patch, and it was on a
Speaker:jacket. And I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure I still have that
Speaker:patch. And I'm like, I'm gonna go see so I go in the closet, I
Speaker:find the bin, I go inside, and you guys, I found my Thompson
Speaker:Tigers clean team patch,
Speaker:and I was it. I even was describing to him. I was like,
Speaker:it was white and had like a navy tiger on it, and it had like
Speaker:gold, you know, trim around, whatever. Okay, I'm gonna hold
Speaker:it up for those of you watching, look at you guys, the Thompson
Speaker:Tigers Queen team. I still have it. So today I'm such a dork, I
Speaker:admit it. I don't care. I'm such a such a little weirdo. I was
Speaker:like, I'm gonna put my patch on and I'm going to go out into my
Speaker:neighborhood, and I'm going to go pick up all of those cans and
Speaker:all of those things that I have seen on my run. So that's what I
Speaker:did. So we walk the dogs. I tuck, I basically tuck two trash
Speaker:bags in the back of my pants. I got gloves, you know? I got my
Speaker:gloves. We walked the dogs to the end of our road, and then I
Speaker:just walked up and down Oak Hill Road, because it's really we
Speaker:just had a cleanup day on our street where our neighborhood,
Speaker:in our neighborhood, we we live on a private dirt road. The town
Speaker:does not maintain our road, so the neighbors all do it and
Speaker:stuff like that. So we just got together this past weekend,
Speaker:actually on my birthday. So we went out as neighbors, and we
Speaker:get our street ready, because we got to grade it and then roll
Speaker:it, because it's dirt, the whole thing. So we just did our
Speaker:cleanup. So there was really nothing on our street to do. So
Speaker:I went out into Oak Hill, and I walked up and down it with my
Speaker:trash bags. And you guys, I shit you not. I picked up two full
Speaker:size garbage bags of trash. And you want to know what else is
Speaker:interesting, besides me feeling I was just so excited that I was
Speaker:being a Thompson Tiger clean team member again. So here we
Speaker:are like, what? 47 maybe 48 years later, no, even less than
Speaker:that, maybe four, maybe 50 years later, I was out there cleaning
Speaker:stuff up. I had my little patch, I had my my gear on. I was so
Speaker:excited. But one of the things that I noticed, besides noticing
Speaker:that the trash just kind of magically seems to appear in the
Speaker:sections where there's not houses. So you just know, some
Speaker:people just Huck and shit. What I found fascinating is 90% of
Speaker:what I picked up was alcohol cans in bottles, beer cans and
Speaker:bottles like alcohol, like liquor, like people had gone to
Speaker:the Packy and got. Themselves some booze. I was like, why is
Speaker:it that we and I was like, and I started laughing. I was like,
Speaker:America, we have a drinking problem. Hello, hello. Anybody,
Speaker:anybody out there? And I was like, wow, it was just crazy.
Speaker:They were like, nips. They were like, quart size bottles. They
Speaker:were, I was like, vodka. Like, remember the shape of Mad Dog?
Speaker:2020, there were some of those bottles. There was, I found all
Speaker:kinds of stuff, but two trash bags full. And I was thinking to
Speaker:myself, first of all, I was just so happy to be doing it. But
Speaker:what was awesome? While I was out there doing this, I bumped
Speaker:into a few people. So I was now coming down Oak Hill. It's like,
Speaker:this steep hill, and there was an older woman, probably like,
Speaker:in her late 70s, early 80s, out there doing her walk. And I had
Speaker:my ear buds in listening to some Fleetwood Mac, you know, as I
Speaker:was doing this stuff, and she's I could tell that she was
Speaker:talking to me, but I couldn't hear so I popped out my ear buds
Speaker:and I said, Hi, and she's like, and she's like, she literally,
Speaker:kind of like, hands on her hips. She's like, Can you believe how
Speaker:people just lit up and throw stuff out of their cars? And I
Speaker:said, I know. I said, it's awful. And I said, but here's
Speaker:the thing. I go we also live in a town where we have to take our
Speaker:trash. So I explained it to her. We live in this town where we
Speaker:have to take our trash, as you know, like to the dump, and
Speaker:sometimes it probably blows out of the back of of people's cars
Speaker:and stuff. She's like, I know, but there's just so much of it.
Speaker:And I said, I know. I said, I agree. I go. And I gotta tell
Speaker:you, I've seen it a bunch of times. And I finally was just
Speaker:like, someone has to do something. And I said, and today
Speaker:that someone is me. And she said to me, Well, you she's so cute.
Speaker:First of all, in her little walk in shorts, she had white hair,
Speaker:she was adorable. And she's like, well, I said, What's your
Speaker:name? And she said, Jesse. And I said, Hi, Jesse. I'm Karen. And
Speaker:and she said, Well, you've inspired me, Karen. And I was
Speaker:like, yay. Like, I was so excited. And she said, I live
Speaker:down there. She told me her house number. She's like, I'm in
Speaker:the Concord line. So the Oak Hill basically turns from loud
Speaker:and into Concord. I live, like, a mile from the Concord line,
Speaker:right? So I I'm like, and she tells me your house number. So
Speaker:I'm like, Wow. She takes wicked long walks. She was far from her
Speaker:house, and she said, she said, the most beautiful thing, and
Speaker:this is what I want to I wanted to tell you. She says, Every day
Speaker:I have to find a kindness. She's like, every day I have to do a
Speaker:kindness. She goes in today, this is going to be my kindness.
Speaker:And she said it again, you've inspired me. And I was just
Speaker:like, tickled pink. I was just so excited, first of all, to
Speaker:just know that another person was going to be out there
Speaker:cleaning up her neighborhood too, her end of the street,
Speaker:right? And that's the thing. It's like we got to clean up our
Speaker:own ends of the street. And I've often said this to my clients.
Speaker:You know, it's so easy to bitch about people out there, you
Speaker:know, so often. And this is literally the analogy that I'll
Speaker:use. I'll say, you know, it's so interesting. We'll stand in our
Speaker:front yard, and we'll look out in like, meaning, look out onto
Speaker:the street, or at our neighbors, or the rest of the world, right?
Speaker:And we'll say, you know, there's just shit everywhere. They're
Speaker:just letting their shit go everywhere, meaning, you know,
Speaker:their their opinions, their behaviors, their bullshit, the
Speaker:stuff that they do that you don't like. And would just be
Speaker:like, they're just letting their shit go everywhere. Look at it.
Speaker:It's a mess. And I'm like, and the one thing that they're not
Speaker:even looking at is, if they turned around and looked in
Speaker:their own backyard, they'd see that their garbage cans, the
Speaker:lids were off, and it was their shit that was blowing into the
Speaker:street. We're so focused on what other people are doing or doing
Speaker:wrong or not doing to our standard or not meeting our
Speaker:preferences or whatever, it's so easy to focus on other people
Speaker:that we have our own blind spots, and we don't even
Speaker:recognize that the trash is coming from us. The trash is
Speaker:coming from our own, yet the garbage is coming from us. And
Speaker:I'm pointing at my head the garbage. It's like the calls are
Speaker:coming from inside the house, right? And so, and I was like,
Speaker:rather than focusing on what everybody else isn't getting
Speaker:right, what everybody else is doing wrong. We can be the
Speaker:change. We can do something differently. Again, whoever is
Speaker:aware and awake and paying attention and is able right, you
Speaker:have the means, you have the energy, you have the ability.
Speaker:Whatever it is, if you can do it, why not have you do
Speaker:something about it? And it got me to think about how you know
Speaker:so often, and especially right now, and I say especially right
Speaker:now, knowing that there have been other times in history when
Speaker:it has been a colossal shit show, we can, like, pick up a
Speaker:book. I'm not being fresh, but literally, pick up a book and
Speaker:read. About our history, and you will see there have been times
Speaker:when there have been famines and droughts and, like, the Spanish
Speaker:flu and the depression, and just like, you know, slave or like,
Speaker:just look at, look at slavery. And just, you know, stealing the
Speaker:land from indigenous people you just look at throughout history,
Speaker:there's always times when we can say now more than ever, right?
Speaker:It feels that way, like right now. It feels like we want to
Speaker:say now more than ever. But there have always been moments
Speaker:throughout history and throughout time when it has been
Speaker:just Civil War, right? Overwhelmingly awful. But
Speaker:individuals, right? This is when you think about the collective,
Speaker:when you think about, again, a family, a neighborhood, a city,
Speaker:a culture, a government, whatever, all that it's made up
Speaker:of is individuals. And there's a there's always enough trash, I
Speaker:always say shit that goes on in the world, whether it's starving
Speaker:children or sex trafficking or racist Christian nationalism
Speaker:ideology or people like, you know, like being awful towards
Speaker:trans people, LGBTQIA, whatever, the reason why these Things go
Speaker:why we have an alligator Alcatraz is because enough
Speaker:individuals are okay with it.
Speaker:That's how we end up, quote, unquote here with things being a
Speaker:shit show, is because enough people are okay with it, or
Speaker:believe in it or want it that way. So when we see things that
Speaker:we don't like, there are going to be times when you can't do
Speaker:anything about it. What can you do when you see things that you
Speaker:don't like, right? Like, you can speak up, you can vote, you can
Speaker:make phone calls. You can intervene when it's like smart
Speaker:to do so, etc, etc, so we have to do that, but a lot of times,
Speaker:what happens is it's really easy to focus on what we don't like.
Speaker:It's really easy to focus on the quote, unquote bad people, or
Speaker:the other ones, or the other side or whatever, and it's so
Speaker:easy to get caught up in what everybody else is doing that you
Speaker:forget that you have some individual power, that you too
Speaker:have autonomy and agency and authorship and the ability to
Speaker:there's another a word I wanted to say, autonomy, agency,
Speaker:authorship and authority, right, where you can get some shit done
Speaker:too. And I often say to people, you know, if, if, if there's
Speaker:nobody else around who's gonna fix it or whatever or change it,
Speaker:what can you do? You know? And I've had people you know say
Speaker:like, oh, somebody, you know, I wish somebody else would run for
Speaker:office. I've had people say to me, like, why don't you run for
Speaker:office? And I say, oh, no, no. I'm like, I'm not a politician.
Speaker:I use my big mouth in other ways. But hey, why not you
Speaker:running for office? If that's something that, like you're
Speaker:capable of and into and want to make change, right? There's a
Speaker:lot of ways to make change in the world. But here's what I
Speaker:wanted to say, while we're focusing on the negative or the
Speaker:bad or, quote, unquote, those people, we lose sight of our own
Speaker:power. We lose sight of the ways that we can make a difference
Speaker:and we can make a change. And I was thinking about something
Speaker:that Swami Kripalu taught me. I mean, he taught, he taught
Speaker:anybody who was learning from him. But Bapu Ji, as we call
Speaker:him, the word Kripalu means compassion. Swami Kripalu, if
Speaker:you've ever heard of the Kripalu, you know, Center for
Speaker:yoga and health out in the Berkshires, out in Western Mass.
Speaker:I'm a Kripalu Yoga teacher. And Swami Kripalu taught us that the
Speaker:best way to improve yourself or the best way to remove something
Speaker:that you don't like or that you've been fighting with or
Speaker:grappling with personally, right? So we're going to look at
Speaker:this first personally. Swami Kripalu taught that the best way
Speaker:to improve ourselves or to remove something that we don't
Speaker:like or that we've been grappling with or fighting with,
Speaker:is not to dwell on the fault. Is to not to dwell on the bad
Speaker:thing, right? That's like lost energy. That's like spend
Speaker:energy, don't put your focus on the thing that you actually are
Speaker:trying to grapple with or fight or change. What you want to
Speaker:focus on and what you want to strengthen is the opposite
Speaker:positive character trait and virtue. You put your focus on
Speaker:the way that you want to be. You put your focus on the way that
Speaker:you want things to be. You don't keep staring at and focusing on
Speaker:and putting your energy on the bad thing, the negative thing,
Speaker:the thing you. Like you put your awareness, your attention, your
Speaker:strength and your focus. If you want to strengthen that's what
Speaker:you want to do. You want to strengthen the opposite,
Speaker:positive character trait or virtue. That's where you put
Speaker:your energy. And this works, in my opinion, both on the
Speaker:individual level and on the level of the world, the greater,
Speaker:right, the greater expansion of those individuals. So for me,
Speaker:it's like, if I if I'm like, Oh my God, there's so much fear in
Speaker:the world and there's so much hatred and there's so much this,
Speaker:and there's so much division and there's so much separation. I'm
Speaker:like, Okay, I'm going to put my focus on creating moments in my
Speaker:individual life, and maybe in the groups that I run, in the
Speaker:nest or in my yoga classes, or in when I do a workshop or when
Speaker:I speak or whatever, then what I'm going to do is really focus
Speaker:on the opposite of the that. I'm going to focus instead of on
Speaker:fear. I'm going to focus on love instead of focusing on anxiety
Speaker:and worry and oh my god, I'm going to focus on love and
Speaker:community and connection and compassion and kindness and
Speaker:mercy and grace and forgiveness. I'm going to focus on the
Speaker:opposite, the positive virtue and character traits. That's how
Speaker:we change shit is not lamenting and feeling helpless and
Speaker:hopeless and going, oh my god, no. You see the fucking can in
Speaker:the street. You pick it up. You see a hungry kid make him a
Speaker:sandwich. See somebody struggling, offer them a helping
Speaker:hand, again, if you are aware, awake, paying attention and able
Speaker:to that's the gig. The gig is to spread more love. The gig is to
Speaker:get better at giving and receiving more love, right? And
Speaker:that can take 1000 forms, but that's where we want to put our
Speaker:positive attention and energy. That's what we want to
Speaker:strengthen. And Swami karpalu had a quote that was just so
Speaker:simple and so perfect. And I did a whole podcast on this before,
Speaker:but in case you didn't hear it, he says, don't fight the
Speaker:darkness, turn on the light and breathe into the goodness that
Speaker:you are. Don't fight the darkness, turn on the light,
Speaker:breathe into the goodness that you are. And so that's what I've
Speaker:been thinking about this past week, in the past few days, and
Speaker:I got to tell you, it felt really good like I'm holding up
Speaker:my little patch again. It felt really good to be a part of the
Speaker:Thompson Tigers clean team today. It felt really good to
Speaker:know that when I go out there and do my run a little bit, that
Speaker:I'm not going to see those blue Bud Light beer, you know, cans
Speaker:and the Arizona iced tea cans and the bottles and the trash
Speaker:bags and all the shit. I mean, you guys, I picked up today two
Speaker:full size trash bags full of stuff, and this was just on,
Speaker:like, a mile and a mile or so of roadside. So can you imagine,
Speaker:can you imagine if one or two people in their neighborhood, in
Speaker:your community, went out one day when they had some extra time,
Speaker:and you took their trash bags and picked up like, what a
Speaker:difference it would make in your neighborhood, in your community.
Speaker:And I'm not saying that's what you have to do. You might have
Speaker:another idea. You might be like, I want to build a community
Speaker:garden, or I want to volunteer at the shelter, or I want to do
Speaker:something, because this is what we want to focus on. Whenever
Speaker:you hear yourself muttering, someone ought to do something.
Speaker:What if that someone is you like? How cool is that? So
Speaker:here's what I'm going to leave you with. Ask yourself this
Speaker:question, what's something that's been bugging me? Right?
Speaker:So what's something that's been bugging you, what's something
Speaker:that you've noticed, what's something that kind of irks you
Speaker:or rubs you the wrong way, or you think to yourself, Man,
Speaker:somebody ought to really do something about that. And then,
Speaker:once you know what that thing is, ask yourself, What can I do?
Speaker:What can I do? Because if you're awake and you're aware and you
Speaker:noticed it, because you were paying attention, right, and
Speaker:you're able to whether you have the means, the resources, the
Speaker:time, the energy, the health, whatever it is that you can do
Speaker:something, why not do it? What if that someone today is you,
Speaker:and you don't know, you might, you might inspire somebody. You
Speaker:might inspire somebody. You know another guy saw me, an older
Speaker:gentleman. He saw me like with my two trash bags, like walking
Speaker:up the street. One was already full, so it was like I was Santa
Speaker:Clausing it while I had the other one. And I had to keep
Speaker:walking down into these ditches. So I also had a walking pole,
Speaker:like I found a big stick, and I was using it for leverage,
Speaker:because I had to keep climbing in and out of these ditches. And
Speaker:I was all sweaty and shit. And he saw me, and he pulled over,
Speaker:and he's like, hey, it's trash day, you know? Because today's
Speaker:one of the days we go the dump. And I was like, Yeah, I know.
Speaker:And he's like, You got trash? And I was like. Well, it's not
Speaker:my I said, I'm just picking up stuff on the side of the road.
Speaker:And he's like, so he pulled over specifically to help me if I
Speaker:needed it. And when I told him I was all set, I said, My sweetie
Speaker:is going to come get me and pick me up, he spun his car around,
Speaker:and when it was truck, and when he pulled up next to me, old,
Speaker:old, older gentleman, and he pulled up next to me, and he
Speaker:said, I just want to say thank you so much for cleaning up our
Speaker:neighborhood, and it was so sweet. It was so nice. And it
Speaker:gave me, of course, it just made the little kid in me, like, so
Speaker:happy, like I had my little patch, and I was like, Yeah,
Speaker:I'm such a joke. I know. All right, you guys, that's what I
Speaker:got for you today, right? This is one of those things, like,
Speaker:when I say at the end of the show all the time, like wherever
Speaker:you go, leave yourself and the people in the place and the
Speaker:animals in the environment better than how you find it
Speaker:wherever you go, like May you be a blessing. This is it. This is
Speaker:the work. It's like Jesse saying every day, right? Every day I
Speaker:try to do a kindness. Every day I try to find a kindness and do
Speaker:a kindness. And that is good, that right? There is, I think,
Speaker:something we could all do every day. I think she just said, do a
Speaker:kindness. But I think my brain is saying, also find a kindness.
Speaker:But I think every day it would behoove us right to look for the
Speaker:good, the beautiful and the holy. Look find a kindness and
Speaker:do a kindness. That's the motto. That's what I'm leaving you with
Speaker:today, right? So remember, remember, if there's something
Speaker:out there that's rubbing you the wrong way, if there's something
Speaker:out there and it, like I said, it could be as big as you
Speaker:deciding to run for office to I'm going to start a little, you
Speaker:know, a little thing where we bring new neighbors cookies. I
Speaker:don't know what it could be, anything in between, but just
Speaker:keep in mind that someone might be you. Someone is you? All
Speaker:right, you guys, have a fantastic rest of your week.
Speaker:Whenever you're listening to this, I appreciate you spending
Speaker:some time with me. I really do. If you found this episode
Speaker:beneficial or helpful in some way, please share it with
Speaker:somebody you love. Please share it with somebody you care about.
Speaker:Maybe it will inspire them to just help me to spread the love
Speaker:I always appreciate that so much. And as of course, I'd be
Speaker:remiss to not let you know if you want to join a spiritual
Speaker:community right now, people who are like working on themselves,
Speaker:trying to spread more love in the world as well. That's what
Speaker:the nest is all about. My spiritual mentoring group and
Speaker:community 50 bucks a month. You can just sign up at Karen Kenney
Speaker:slash the nest, or just Karen Kenney nest, N, E, S, T, Karen
Speaker:kenney.com/nest and then I work with people one to one as well,
Speaker:Karen kenney.com/quest and you can just go to my website to see
Speaker:all the shenanigans things I have going on. And then also, if
Speaker:you ever want to support the show, I have a little tip jar,
Speaker:and it's just Karen kenney.com/tip job. And I
Speaker:appreciate anything. There's no obligation. But if you love to
Speaker:support the show, and my efforts of getting this show out into
Speaker:the world every week, episode 335, I can't even believe it.
Speaker:Over six years, we've been doing this and taking this ride
Speaker:together. So thank you. All right, wherever you go, leave
Speaker:your people and the place and the animals and the environment
Speaker:and yourself better than how you found it. Wherever you go, may
Speaker:you and your energy and your presence and your love and your
Speaker:I don't know your your Thompson tigers, clean team spirit. Oh,
Speaker:my God be a blessing. Bye, bye.
