What If You Actually Listened To Yourself? - Do You Even Know Yourself Anymore? Mini Series Ep 4

Sometimes the simplest shifts make the biggest difference. In this short and powerful episode, we’re building on last week’s “What If I Forgot to Ask Myself What I Needed?” with a practical tool to help you remember - even on the busiest days. You’ll learn an easy way to check in with yourself, reconnect with what you need, and start honoring it in real time… no matter how hectic life gets.

Reflection Questions:

• How often do I currently check in with myself each day?
• What reminders feel most natural to me - alarms, visuals, pairing with habits, or something else?
• What fears or resistance do I notice when I ask myself what I need?
• What’s one tiny thing I can give myself today in response to my own answer?

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Self-Needs Miniseries
• 2:37 Practical Habit-Building Strategies
• 4:58 Facing Fears of Self-Inquiry
• 5:47 Weekly Experiment and Reflection Questions
• 7:33 What If Card and Episode Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:58

Welcome back to the Pure Possibilities podcast. We're continuing our Do you Even Know Yourself Anymore? Miniseries and today we're answering a beautiful question that came up during our live Q&A this last week how do I remember to ask myself what I need? I love, love, love this question, because it's one thing to realize I've been ignoring my own needs, but it's a whole other thing to make checking in with yourself a natural everyday habit. So let's talk about how you can start remembering gently, practically and, of course, without judgment. So the first thing is most of us don't forget because we're careless. We forget because we've been conditioned for years, sometimes even decades, to focus on everyone else first, and it really becomes like a muscle memory, just like any other habit. It takes time and repetition to rewire that pattern. So if you catch yourself going hours or days, or maybe even weeks, without checking in, it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. You're not failing. It's proof that you're learning a new language and your brain is still trying to process it. So here are some ways to start building that. What do I need? Habit? My go to is always setting an alarm or notification and you can put a label on it, so I would actually put pause. What do I need right now? And if you want as like a little bonus, you can pair it with a calming sound that doesn't like jolt your nervous system. I personally have hourly alarms on my phone and I use the what-if questions, but sometimes that can be a lot for people, so I would recommend just having a couple of them programmed throughout the day. Another option would be to pair the question with something that you already do. So what do I need? And you could create the habit of asking yourself that in the morning, when you're making coffee or tea, or any time of day when you're making coffee or tea something that you do every day or when you sit down at your desk or as you're getting into bed at night. You can also use visual cues, sticky notes on your mirror or on your computer, a bracelet ring or do like the background on your phone. You could put that question there what do I need? And save that as a screensaver or like on your lock screen to check in, or you can bookend your day in the morning. What do I need to feel supported today? In the evening, what did I need today that I gave myself and what will I give to myself tomorrow. Those are just a couple of different options. You obviously don't need to do all of them, but I would invite you to try a couple of them and see, maybe, what works for you and what doesn't, and then try to increase your consistency with doing it.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Sometimes the real reason that we don't ask ourselves what we need it's not because we forget, it's fear. Fear of not knowing the answer, fear the answer might inconvenience someone else, fear that the answer might bring up feelings that we've been avoiding. And when that happens, remember you don't have to fix what has come up, just witness it and simply asking yourself is the win, and listening is the practice. We don't want to lose ourself in the fear, but sometimes it's Asking. What I need can be something as simple as I need to rest. I need to rest. I need 10 minutes.

Speaker 1: 4:45

This week I want to invite you to do a little experiment. Set two reminders each day to ask yourself what do I need right now and write down whatever comes up, even if it's I don't know. You might be surprised at how quickly that inner voice inside of you starts to get a little bit louder when it realizes that you're actually listening and asking the questions. I'd also like to offer a couple of reflection questions for you this week as we do so. The first one is how often do I currently check in with myself each day? Again, no judgment, simply asking yourself the question and being honest. Number two what reminders feel the most natural to me Alarms, visuals, pairing it with a habit or something else? Number three what fears or resistance do I notice when I ask myself what I need? And number four what's one tiny thing I can give myself today in response to an answer that comes up for me? I hope you'll take the opportunity to reflect on those questions and also do the check-ins each day and see how it goes for you and make it fun. You know, like I said, I put what if? Questions on my alarms and during our live Q&A it was also brought up that you know what if you just snooze the alarm? And in my opinion, even if you're snoozing the alarm, it's still a reminder for you to check in and even if you don't have time in that moment, it's still like oh hey, don't forget about me Time to check in. So I would invite you to, even if you snooze it, have that alarm there and it is a gentle reminder for you to check in with yourself. All right, I'm going to pull a card from the magic of what if? Card deck, volume two. They are available on my website, pure possibilities, podcastcom, and you can also get all kinds of fun. What if merch there journals, candles, mugs, all kinds of fun stuff? All right.

Speaker 1: 6:55

Today's question what if I focus on what is going well in my life? Well, I love that. What if I focus on what is going well in my life? Well, I love that. What if I focus on what is going well in my life? You know, I feel like we're so quick to like go down the negative path of all the things that are wrong and all the bad things that are happening in our life or in the world. And what if we just take a moment to focus on all the good, the good and the beauty? It's there when we allow ourselves to be open to seeing it. Thank you so much for joining me today, and next week we will be continuing the Do you Even Know Yourself Anymore? Mini-series. I don't exactly know what we're going to talk about yet, because I had actually something else planned for today and I really like to just allow my intuition to guide me. So just come back. It'll be a surprise. What if Shannon surprises and delights you? I hope you have a beautiful, beautiful day and an amazing week. Much love.