Wisdom and Chocolate is a common sense approach to self Empowerment and self Celebration. In this weeks episode we talk about rebirth and how challenging experiences in your life give you the opportunity to come back stronger and wiser than before. If you are looking for the peace within, rejuvenation, or just a reminder of hammocks and forest baths, this is an episode you won't want to miss . This weeks wisdom is maximized with stories of the woods, permaculture, and good old fashioned bees. All of this lovely wisdom is wrapped in some super yummy Dark Chocolate Covered Bananas. The real transformation begins with Celebration….so grab your chocolate…It’s time to Celebrate You!
Highlights:
The Wisdom…Don’t Worry About The Fall. New And Stronger Leaves Will Grow
The Chocolate…Maximize The Potential Of Your Life
The Celebration Moment…Peace Is Within You
Webinar: Living An Inspired Life - Sign up at: https://www.betsdanko.com/pl/2147580744
Check out www.BetsDanko.Com to get more information on blogs, podcasts, courses, and monthly memberships.
Wisdom and Chocolate is a common sense approach to self Empowerment and self Celebration. In this weeks episode we talk about rebirth and how challenging experiences in your life give you the opportunity to come back stronger and wiser than before. If you are looking for the peace within, rejuvenation, or just a reminder of hammocks and forest baths, this is an episode you won't want to miss . This weeks wisdom is maximized with stories of the woods, permaculture, and good old fashioned bees. All of this lovely wisdom is wrapped in some super yummy Dark Chocolate Covered Bananas. The real transformation begins with Celebration….so grab your chocolate…It’s time to Celebrate You!
Highlights:
The Wisdom…Don’t Worry About The Fall. New And Stronger Leaves Will Grow
The Chocolate…Maximize The Potential Of Your Life
The Celebration Moment…Peace Is Within You
Webinar: Living An Inspired Life - Sign up at: https://www.betsdanko.com/pl/2147580744
Check out www.BetsDanko.Com to get more information on blogs, podcasts, courses, and monthly memberships.
It's time to combine a guilty little pleasure with a new healthy habit. Kick up your feet and listen in. This is Wisdom. & Chocolate. My name is Bets Danko and you are listening to Wisdom & Chocolate. I am honored to be here with you today, speaking to you with a little bit of wisdom and following that up with a whole lot of chocolate. So let's get started. Today, our main topic is Maximize Your Potential. I just want to take a moment to ask you to share this podcast with a friend. Give the gift of self celebration to the people who are closest to you in your life. Go ahead and take a moment and share this podcast. Now of course, we're going to start with the wisdom moment because wisdom should always be at the beginning of every situation. When we start any situation without employing a little bit of wisdom, well, that can just totally get us in trouble, can't it? And today's wisdom moment is,Don't Worry About The Fall, New And Stronger Leaves Will Grow. Now that might seem like a funny thing to talk about because at the time that I'm recording this particular podcast, it's actually the spring. It's the beginning of spring, actually. And you know, why would we sit back and think about the fall? Well, because now is when all the growth happens. Now is when we are reminded of how beautiful the world actually is. Now I live out in the middle of the woods. I've mentioned that many times before. And of course, when winter is kind of wrapping up, you kind of look at the forest and go, "what the heck is any of this going to survive?" Everything is not brown, it's gray. And after all the wind storms of winter and the snow and the ice storms, there are so many branches that have fallen off the trees that it just looks like nothing is going to come back to life. All hope seems lost. And then of course, spring hits, and everything starts turning green again. The things that you love to see turn green, and the things that you aren't so happy are there and are green, are starting to come back. And what I find absolutely amazing is how when things grow back, they seem to grow back stronger than they were in the end of the summer before. Somehow, everything is rejuvenated. Everything...it's like it went to bed at a good eight o'clock at night and woke up the next day at about 10 or 11 in the morning. Like really rejuvenated. Not really needing any coffee. Not needing to, you know, take a run, anything like that. Just rejuvenated. And it's absolutely gorgeous. Right now I'm looking outside my window and I've got all these daffodils everywhere that have come up and let us know, "Yes, indeed it is spring." And then behind that, of course, we've got the rose bushes and you're starting to see green at the tops of the trees. And everything just seems so completely different than it did. Where we thought everything was dying back and there was no turning around, there was absolutely no hope, now we're seeing that there's hope - and there's strength. And things look even more vibrant than we remember them. And I think that this is something that is really important to remember in the times of our lives when everything looks gray. Not talking about the seasons of the earth right now but instead maybe talking about the seasons of our lives, the seasons of our days. Everything that you do has kind of this pattern to it a rhythm to it and at some point, if this is a trying situation, challenging situation, at some point, it will feel like things are gray. And if you hold on long enough, and you allow yourself clarity and you allow yourself to breathe and you recognize what is important to you, then what will blossom will be stronger than it was before. Notice I'm not saying, "hold on to the thing that sucks in your life because that thing could get stronger." No, I put the clarity and the breathing in there, right? You've got to center yourself. You got to recognize what's important to you. And then what will come from that mindset will put you in a stronger position later. What grows will be strong and green and vibrant. And that growth will happen within you. See everything that has to do with you has to do with you. I mean that's kind of a logical statement, right, but some people need to hear that. If it's something that's happening in your life, then it has to do with you. So any changes and tweaks that you make are going to benefit you. If you come from a place of clarity, if you breathe, and if you recognize what is serving you, and you let the things that aren't go. Now it is time for renewal. It's time for a rebirth, if you will. And the forest is actually indicating that to us. But it also happens within our own lives and sometimes I laugh at how things happen and I'm reminded of different things that are said by many different people. One of which is, you know, it's time for spring cleaning. Now, yesterday, I did some spring cleaning, and I already got way into it before I recognize, oh, it's spring...and I'm cleaning. And it is time for renewal. And in fact, the place where I'm seated right now is definitely a representation of spring cleaning. Where, you know, tthe seat that I'm in, the area that I'm at in my office, looks really awesome and organized and put together and totally different than it did yesterday morning. But the whole rest of my office is an absolute mess. I've got chairs completely out of place, the desk that I was working at is now sort of in the middle of the floor over there. The couch, which used to be behind my desk is now on a totally different wall, and it's going to be moved into the house. You know, there are a lot of things that are completely out of place around me. And cleaning, I'm in the process of cleaning. And part of that process is letting go. Letting Go... shifting around... moving... making things accessible to you that are pleasing to you rather than being surrounded with things that aren't serving you. That's what I'm living in right now. And I'm happy about that. I'm happy about it. Not that, you know, my office is an absolute jungle on the other side but that things are shifting and changing. My office was gorgeous. I loved it. But there was something kind of gray about it. It had lived through its season. It was time to move forward. It was time to lower my computer, make it more easily accessible by putting it on a different table. It was time to shift my rug. It was time to find the two wood spiders that were occupying space right next to my desk. Oh my goodness, wood spiders are so huge. Huge. And if they look extra fuzzy, beware because that means they're carrying and are totally covered by baby spiders. Now, I didn't see a bunch of fuzz, I'm really super happy about that. And and one of them had already lost its life. I don't even know how. It was just kind of their you know how they are when they're on their backs and their legs are up in the air. But this other one, hoping for renewal being inside my office, got stuck underneath the rug as I was moving it and it's not there anymore. And I didn't see any baby spiders. So I'm really grateful for that. But all of these things needed to shift. Things needed to be discovered. Things needed to be escorted out. There was a lot that needed to be done. Because it's spring and the leaf needs to grow stronger. That's me. And the leaves inside my office needed to be stronger. That's my work area. And I'll tell you why in just a few minutes because there's actually a super funny story that I need to tell you. And only you my audience understand why this is funny because of what happened to my ankle last summer. But here I am in my new office setting. I actually face the woods. I'm not facing a wall I'm looking right out windows... right it past my front door actually... so it's pretty easy to be just pulled into the beauty which is around me. I've got my own forest bath going on right now. And if I open a window, I can hear the sounds of the forest, which is absolutely gorgeous. In fact, those of you who are in western Pennsylvania, were the frogs yesterday not absolutely amazing? I love it when you start hearing the whole forest just come to life with all the tree frogs and just, oh my goodness, it was so gorgeous their song. One of the things that I love about Pennsylvania, all of the frogs. So again, here I am in this lovely spot looking outside at the forest... getting my own little forest bath and I am recognizing that the fall was trying. There was a lot of challenge going on. Now I'm seeing things open up. the sky is opening. things are becoming much more like I had hoped the end of last year would be. Stronger leaves are indeed, coming. And they're growing. And they are already here. And the main one that's already here is me. And that is how I hope you see you in this type of scenario. What is your spring like right now? And are you recognizing that the strongest leaf, the greenest leaf, which grows is actually you? You have the ability to grow the forest within your office, within your home, to be something stronger and more vibrant than it was before. Don't worry about the fall, whether it's the fall in a year on Earth, or if it's the fall during a day during a week during the month, don't worry about the fall. If you maintain your clarity, if you're really focused on what is important and what is valuable for you, you will grow new and stronger leaves. You've got this. Are you enjoying Wisdom & Chocolate? Then I encourage you to share this podcast with a friend. Make sure that you're sharing with them all of the love and peace and grace that you get from this podcast every single week. Reach out and share chocolate with a friend. There is one simple equation that holds the secret to an empowered life. It's called the I AM Equation, a powerful online course at BetsDanko.Com dedicated to creating real transformative change through self celebration. Celebrate, motivate and empower. It's that simple. The solution to the equation is personal transformation, the I AM Equation at BetsDanko.Com. Plug your life into the equation at BetsDanko.Com. It is now time for the chocolate moment in the show. And this moment is all about maximizing the potential of your life. And the chocolate I'm going to share with you is actually one that you find in the freezer section at the grocery store. And that is the Dole Dippers, dark chocolate covered banana slices. How many of you love these? They are so good. Now I will tell you that these are best when they are rock hard solid frozen from the freezer. If you let them sit out before you go to eat them, the banana kind of turns to mush to be honest with you. But the taste is so so good. And the dark chocolate is absolutely yummy. And if you are someone who is worried about calories, they're only 100 calories per pack. It's a great thing to have first thing in the morning if you've really got a sweet tooth, but you also want to make sure that you're not eating too much too early in the day. Now maximizing your potential. That's what that banana did...maximizd its potential of yumminess by being wrapped in dark chocolate. That is just brilliant little banana. Banana did a great job of maximizing its potential. So I have a funny story, like I mentioned earlier, and this story is about bumblebees. Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with my story of 2021, I will fill you in very quickly. I have been working at understanding plant life. I am not somebody who grows house plants very well. In fact, if a plant is relying on me to water it every day, well, it's going to die. It's just not going to survive. Unless it has the ability of reaching out and grabbing me and reminding me that it's there and it needs water, it doesn't have much of a chance in it. And this is not something I'm proud of this is just something that I recognize. So I'm much better at growing things outside. I also have a strong respect for nature and I think that the recipe for growing things is something that comes naturally to nature. And we should be taking advantage of that knowledge. No, of course I live in a forest and so I decided that I would love to grow a food forest. And I did not know what permaculture was until I guess around this time last year. I hadn't really you know, taken a dive into anything like that. But when I started realizing that it was pretty easy to just follow diagrams and to follow what other people had found to be true about growing things together. Well, there you go, that I can do. Don't expect me to water things. So hallelujah, I live in western Pennsylvania so I don't have to water anything, except maybe Garlic. Garlic needs a lot of water and sometimes we have very dry spots during our summer. So you need to be watering and taking care of certain things. But I'm actually pretty good at that. And now that I'm looking at permaculture, and I'm looking at how the Earth has shaped itself exactly as it needs to be shaped, so you work with what's already there, well, now I know things need more water, you grow in different spots than things that don't need enough water. Like, I've learned this, I can work with patterns. I can work with seasons. I can work with nature, just don't expect me to come in and with a watering can and be watering and house plant. So there I was super excited. I had been laying out this garden, creating paths, making sure that we could access everything. And I was planting all of this stuff. And I was over near this area where I knew that there was an in-ground bee's nest. And I knew it because my son had been stung by one of these bees. But I also recognized that when you don't mess with bees, most of the time, they don't mess with you. And he had dropped this huge rock on top of their nest not knowing that they were there so of course he would get stung. So there was. probably, I don't know, maybe 10 feet away from where the hole was that we knew existed for them to come in and out of their little in-ground hive. And I guess I was making too much noise. Maybe because a rock had been dropped on them a few days before, they were a little spooked but they decided that they did not like me there. And the next thing I know, I see black fuzzy specks of things coming at me rather quickly, I was running over uneven rock in rubber boots, not a good combination. And ultimately, I did not get stung. I had run far enough away that they kind of gave up. I don't remember what the statistics say, it's like maybe 100 yards away, and they'll finally give up if it's just a few bees. And I had already damaged my ankle pretty badly and I think that there are probably a few hairline fractures in there. But there was definitely some ripping and things that happened. And it was funny to me that this would happen because I I listened to signs from animals. If I see deer at the side of the road, and they're not afraid of me, they're totally standing there staring at me, then I'm thinking, "ooh, something's happening in my family I need to be paying attention to." Like there are times when these animals when they stop, and they're pointedly calling your attention, that the energy or the behaviors of them should indicate to you that you need to pay attention to something. You know, that might be controversial to some, but I have found this to be true in my life. So when I look at a honeybee, I look at the saying, I'm sure you guys have heard the saying "worker bee", They really are all about the work. They are constantly committed to whatever it is that they are trained to accomplish underground. They fly out, they go get whatever they need, they fly back in, they fly out get what they need, they fly in. Like, they do their job and they do it very well. They're very diligent, very dedicated to what it is that they want to do. And this is what I have been like for the last couple years, I have been very diligent, I have been very dedicated to what it is I'm trying to accomplish. I'm very committed to helping people take control of their lives and feel more positively about what is happening in their lives. And the thing is, I'm also dedicated to making sure that they know how to do that for themselves. I kind of mirror the message that comes from a bee. And you know, I've got a friend who will completely verify this with you... If I am outside, If I'm walking around sitting in a restaurant, if I'm just walking from my car to a building, inevitably there is a bee somewhere around me. They are constantly around me, almost laughing at me. And they're constantly reminding me, "you've got a message. It's important. It is sweet. In fact, it is about the sweetness of life. It is important that you share it." It's like they're constantly around me reminding me, "get organized and get to work."And they're so lovely and the way that they do this so supportive these little beings. Now, I didn't feel super supported when they chased me out of my garden because I felt that I was being very dedicated to working in that garden. I felt that perhaps because I was working with nature and not against nature, because I was creating a little food forest, that maybe I deserved a little bit of grace. But no, they were reminding me, "you must work, you must be dedicated. You must do what needs to be done. Be committed. Be diligent. Be dedicated." That's what they reminding me of. And that might seem very odd when one is laying on a bed in excruciating pain, leg propped up, no position feels good. It feels odd that one might think, "well, I'll just get more dedicated." And I have to tell you, that's not what happened, I had to take a few days in that excruciating pain before I could breathe and remind myself, "No, this means that I can't go out into the garden as much as I wanted to. This means that I am sitting in my office more and doing more work on the company that I am building." It took me days to get to the point of recognizing that because you kind of wallow. Let's just be honest. If you're working really hard, and you've got a goal and something pulls you back and knocks you down, you kind of wallow in that. And I did. I wallowed. I really wanted my garden to be at a different place now than it is. And that's a whole other story because wait till I tell you what the deer have been doing to all of these gorgeous trees that I planted. But anyway, I want to get to the fact that I was online. I spent a lot of time online because I do social media for my own company but I also help other people and I do, Oh, goodness, I think I have seven different accounts that I'm managing at this point. So I'm on the internet a lot. I am watching what's trending, I am liking posts and commenting posts, and I'm working within all the different companies. And it's just it's a lot. Sometimes I'm in the middle of all this and something very interesting will pop up on say Instagram or Facebook and I'll pause my work and I'll just engage and have fun with whatever it is. So here I am, I'm scrolling through and all of a sudden I see this card, and it's in like a picture but I don't realize at that moment that it's actually a video. And on the card, there's an animal. And I read the caption and says, "close your eyes and take a screenshot while your eyes are closed." I'm like, Oh, interesting. I see the cards start to move. So I close my eyes very quickly. And I take a screenshot. And when I open my eyes, what card do you think was there? The picture that I took was of the card that had the honeybee on it. I don't think that that was by chance. And to be totally honest with you, I would rather see a card with a bumblebee on it, than to see bees torpedoing their bodies at me, while I'm running for my life, in rubber boots, out of my garden. A card on Instagram is we were friendly, and I got the point. I got the point. Get organized and get to work. And so what did I do? I organize my office. I maximize the potential of my life by creating more surface area so that I can have an area for the book that I'm writing... an area for the work that I do for other people... an area for my second computer because I use that when I have somebody come in and help me with my transcriptions. I have more space. I am maximizing my potential. I am maximizing potential of my life by extension because the more successful I am at helping other people become successful, the more centered my entire life will become. So I've got my eyes on the future. I am organized and getting to work. I am committed and I'm diligent and I'm dedicated and I sit down with my dole dippers from time to time, and I maximize my productivity by having my banana and dark chocolate early in the day. Don't worry about the fall, stronger leaves will grow, especially if you're paying attention at the times when you should be organized at the times when you should be working. When you're paying attention to what's going on around you, that's when you maximize the potential of your life. It doesn't have to be about work. It doesn't have to be about permaculture gardening. It could be about you're learning how to, I don't know, bake pastries, and you're maximizing your potential by paying attentionn to that...being dedicated to that. Maybe it's all about your family. Maybe you're a mom, maybe you're a dad, maybe you're a grandparent, and you're caring for other people...maximize your potential by being observant, having clarity about what it is that you're doing. Don't worry about the fall, the fall will happen. It will happen. And if you have clarity, and you breathe through it, and you recognize what's important, you will shift and make changes that need to be made so that you maximize the potential of your life. For me, it was about my office. For me, it was about the bumblebee card. For me, it was about recognizing that I am strong on the inside - and so are you. Maximize the potential of your life by having clarity about what is important to you. Looking for a way to help support BetsDanko.Com and Wisdom &. Chocolate, head down to the bottom of the podcast description. Click on, "Buy Me A Coffee." That will take you to the website, Buy Me A Coffee, where you can make a donation to help support everything that we do here. And of course, we dedicate everything we do to celebrating you. So thank you for helping us do exactly that. And now we are at the celebration moment and this celebration is something I look forward to all year long. And I haven't been able to go for two years because of the whole COVID thing. Right? So this year, I'm super excited that I am going to be going to Revival. I am super, super excited about that. Now the celebration moment is actually Peace Is Within You. And what does this revival have to do with peace within you? Well, I will tell you. This is called, the full name is Great Rhythm Revival, and it is basically like hippie central. It's so super awesome. People come together from all over the place and they're looking for that piece that is within them. They're looking to tap into that. And what you have is a lot of drumming and dancing and meditation and shamanic journeying, and you can walk through the woods, you can go to the shitaki mushroom area, you get amazing food, it is just absolutely awesome. And you can go and rent like a tiny little place that you can sleep but many people come and they pitch a tent, and they sleep out in the woods. And there are some people who actually show up with hammocks, and they put these hammocks out in the woods for everyone to enjoy. And in fact, the last time that I was there, I enjoyed my hammock so much that I spent hours and hours in a hammock and then ended up purchasing one and bringing it home. It's not the same as hanging out at Revival. But it's still absolutely awesome to have a hammock to hang in while you are outside. Now the peace that is within you is there all the time. It's something that all you have to do is just tap into it. And I know it sounds so simple the way I say it, "all you have to do is tap into it." I know that it can be harder than that. I know that when we are doing our day to day things, when we're worried about the money, when we're worried about, you know, just driving to work when we've got to think about all of our our commitments and things that we need to get done, stress can stop us from tapping into that peace. I get it. I know it. I live it, to be honest with you. I have days when I wake up and I'm stressed before I even open my eyes and to find the peace within takes work. And the work is not in fighting to find that peace, the work is in letting go of all of the stuff that is weighing you down. It can take work. Sure, yes, it's meditate, breathe, let it all go. That's That's lovely. I love it when people say, "Oh, it's so easy, just do this." But to quiet your mind...that's probably one of the hardest things to do. The mind is constantly processing things and helping you to work through things, so to quiet it and find the peace is very difficult. But I think that it's reassuring to remind ourselves that the peace is there. It's always there. It is always there. The peace is within you. And you don't need a revival. Having a revival to go to is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it, but you don't need that to tap into the peace within you. Yes, employ things like meditation. Sit and breathe. But one of the things that is the most helpful is having a routine - having a time during the day that is dedicated to reconnecting to the peace within you. Maybe it's a thing that you do in the morning, maybe it's something that you do at lunch, maybe it serves you best to do it at the end of your day so that as the stress is kind of working its way through and you kind of hit a pinnacle, then you can bring yourself back down to the peace, figure out what works best for you. But create a pattern. Create a ritual where you bring yourself back to a place of peace. Own that. Own it to the point that nothing will stop you from going through that pattern. If it's something you do every day at lunch, and then someone says, "Hey, I really want to go shopping during lunch want to come with me?" Well, sure, I can do that after I bring myself back to a place of peace. The peace is within you. You don't have to create the peace inside of you, you just need to uncover it. Don't worry about the fall. New and stronger leaves will grow around the peace which is already within you. If you have clarity and know how important you are. If you breathe and you allow yourself to honor who you are, you can maximize the potential of your life. Especially when you find the piece within. If you'd like me to wrap a little wisdom around your favorite chocolate reach out and let me know just write a little comment. Let me know what your chocolate is and where you're writing from and I will find a way to weave in into one of my podcasts. And I'll even give you a shout out so people know that it came specially from you. Check out everything that BetsDanko.Com has to offer at BetsDanko.com If you're on social media, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, you can follow me and BetsDanko.Com and keep up to date on all the little bits of Wisdom & Chocolate that I post Monday through Friday. Subscribe to this podcast and start enjoying your weekly dose of celebrating you with Bets Danko. And while you're at it. If you're enjoying Wisdom & Chocolate please take a moment and share with a friend. Go ahead. tag a friend today with Wisdom & Chocolate and get them started on a path of self celebration. Experience the wisdom that helps to motivate and empower you in relationships, business, family and most importantly, self celebration. Getting the picture? It's wisdom and it's all about you. Want to hear the chocolate? Tune into Wisdom & Chocolate weekly