How Do You Want to Feel? A Mid-Year Check-In

How do you want to feel? ❤

It's a question I invite us to ask at the beginning of the year, but how often do we pause and check in with the answer?

In this mid-year check-in, I explore why how you feel matters just as much as the goals you're working toward. We talk about the tendency to postpone our joy and happiness until life gets easier, why waiting for the perfect circumstances keeps us stuck, and how small, intentional moments can help you feel more connected, peaceful, present, and alive right now.

I also share lessons from my current season of recovery, how my Feel Good List has evolved, and why becoming more aware of your energy creates the opportunity to respond rather than react.

This episode is a simple reminder for all of us, that joy doesn't have to be big, expensive, or complicated. Sometimes it's found in the smallest micro moments - and those moments matter more than we realize.

✨Reflection Questions✨

• How did I want to feel this year?

• Where am I already experiencing more of those feelings than I might realize?

• What is one small thing I could do today or this week to intentionally create more of how I want to feel?

You don't have to wait until everything is figured out to feel connected to yourself. Maybe this is simply your reminder to pause, notice, reconnect, and ask yourself: How do I want to feel?

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe to the Pure Possibilities Podcast, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a quick review so we can help more people reconnect with their micro-moments of joy.  

Transcript

Welcome And Midyear Check-In

Shannon 0:00

Welcome back. You're listening to the Pure Possibilities podcast, and I'm your host, Shannon. It's so funny. The other day I was looking at the calendar and I was like, is it June already? How did that happen? It is hard to believe that we are already halfway through the year, which brought me back to how in the beginning of every year, I always like to focus on how do I want to feel this year? And so every year I do the how do you want to feel this year episode at the beginning. And then I started doing a mid-year check-in. And so while this episode is certainly a bit of a mid-year check-in, it's really a conversation that we could have any point throughout the year. Because every January, people tend to focus on their goals. What do I want to accomplish? What do I want to create? What do I want to change? I want to get healthy. So I'm going to go to the gym. And while all of those questions can be very helpful, there's another question that I believe matters just as much. And it is, how do I want to feel? Not just at the end of the year, not just when I hit the goal, not just when everything finally works out, but today, right now, in this moment, this week, this season of my life. Because if you've listened to the podcast for any amount of time, you've probably heard me talk about this before. And how you feel matters. And what I notice that a lot of people say is that they want to feel peaceful, connected, joyful, present, free, confident. But then we

Goals Matter But Feelings Lead

Shannon 1:35

spend very little time intentionally creating those experiences in our life. And we keep waiting for life to make us feel that way instead of asking ourselves, what could I do today, right now, in this moment, that would help me feel a little more of the way that I actually want to feel. And it is so easy for us to postpone joy, to postpone peace, to postpone feeling good, because we tell ourselves, I'll feel better when work slows down, when my relationship improves, when my kids get older, when my money situation changes, when my health gets better, when life gets easier. And yet life keeps happening. And honestly, there will always be something. There will always be challenges. There will always be unexpected situations. There will always be things that don't go according to your plan. There will always be things going on outside of you that are completely out of your control. And if we're constantly waiting for everything to be perfect before we allow ourselves to feel good, we're gonna spend a really long time waiting for that. This has been pretty

Recovery Forces New Joy Paths

Shannon 2:55

prevalent for me over the last few weeks. As many of you know, I'm currently recovering from foot surgery. And because of that, a lot of the things that I normally enjoy doing aren't available to me right now. I physically am unable to do those things. I can't go for a walk. I can't go outside as easily, I can't just hop in my car and drive somewhere. And many of the things that normally bring me joy have been taken off the table for right now. And what's been interesting is because of that, it's invited me to become much more intentional about creating my own pockets of joy in my day. Because if I didn't do that, I could definitely go down in a pretty dark hole because I'm not able to access joy in the way that I'm used to. So the question is, then where else can I find it? What feels good? What else feels supportive? What else brings me peace? And that's just a reminder. It doesn't have to be big moments. Sometimes it's a conversation with a friend. I am loving watching Mariner's baseball this season. And it's wonderful because I've reconnected with my joy of watching baseball. And it gives me something to look forward to every day because I'm not able to do as much. Well, almost every day. Being intentional about going and sitting outside in the sun for a few minutes, listening to the birds, getting cozy with my favorite blanket, watching a favorite show, savoring a delicious cup of coffee. I do that every morning. The little things and those moments are available right here, right now for you when you choose to allow yourself

Creating Pockets Of Joy Daily

Shannon 4:45

to notice them or intentionally create them. Years ago, I started teaching something called a feel-good list. And you may be familiar with it if you've been in my world for a while. But the idea is simple. You just create a list of things that help you feel good. And it's not things, these aren't things that you think should help you feel good. They're things that actually do, because what's on my list is going to be different than what's on your list because we're all different and unique. And there's things that bring me joy that definitely don't bring other people joy. And so sometimes when we're not feeling great, we forget what those things are. So if you have a list you can refer to, it makes it much easier. When we're feeling frustrated and overwhelmed, we often forget what supports us and what helps us reconnect to our soul and our being and what actually gives us peace and what fills our cup. And I believe we should overflow our cup. And having that list becomes a reminder. But one other thing that's really important is that your feel good list can change. Something that you had on your feel good list maybe six months ago might not feel as supportive right now. What brought you joy in one season might not be what you need in another, or it might not even be accessible to you in another. And that's okay because we are allowed to evolve.

Build And Update A Feel-Good List

Shannon 6:10

You're allowed to update your list and you're allowed to ask yourself, what feels good for me right now in this moment? And one of the biggest shifts that happens is when we start paying attention. When you start to notice when your energy is changing, when you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed or disconnected, resentful, frustrated, or feeling completely depleted, noticing it, but not judging it, just noticing it. Because once you're aware of however it is that you're feeling, even if you're noticing joy, like, oh, I want to do more of that because that makes me feel good. But when you're in a space of awareness, it gives you choice. And so when you're in a space of choice, you can ask yourself, what do I need right now? Maybe I just need to pause for a moment and take a few deep breaths, intentional breaths. Maybe it's stepping outside for a few minutes. It could be music, it could be rest, it could be connecting with someone that you care about. Maybe you need to move your body. Maybe it's simply a moment to just be with yourself for a few minutes. And the goal isn't to feel amazing all the time because that's honestly unrealistic and kind of falls into the perfectionism side of things. It's the resilience that you build within yourself. The goal is to care enough about how you feel that you're willing to do something about it and to respond to it, that you take note and you pay attention. I'm feeling this particular way and it doesn't feel good. What can I do right now in this moment to shift that feeling, not in avoidance, but sometimes when our energy dips or something is overwhelming us

Awareness Creates Choice And Resilience

Shannon 8:05

or kind of taking over and we're spiraling, when you pause and reconnect to yourself, it gives you clarity. When you stop and take those intentional breaths, it regulates your nervous system and it brings you back online so that you're able to make decisions from a space of clarity rather than chaos. And what happens is eventually something really beautiful starts to happen. It becomes less about fixing yourself and more about knowing yourself. You become more aware of what is supportive for you. You're more aware of what drains you, maybe the people that you're spending your time with or the places that you're going. You're more aware of what truly brings you joy and more aware of what helps you feel connected to yourself. And over time, it becomes less of a practice and more of just a way of being. For example, right now, I don't pull out an actual list of things that have brought me joy. It's been an amazing way of getting to know myself again because I didn't know myself for a really long time. And I would try new things and go, oh, I actually really do enjoy doing that. Or, oh no, I don't enjoy doing that. But it allows you the opportunity to get to know yourself and what actually feels good for you and when you're paying attention to how you're feeling. And once you're embodying this practice, like you won't allow yourself to tolerate feeling like crap all the time. And then you stop waiting until you're completely depleted. You stop waiting until you're completely overwhelmed and you become proactive with allowing the things that feel good in instead of reactive. Many of you know, like I generally start my day dancing while I'm getting ready in the shower. And right now I can't do that. So I'm seeking other ways to bring myself joy and to feel good. And when you become proactive instead of reactive, the bounce back to feeling better becomes a little bit easier. And it's not because life is perfect, it is definitely not because life is perfect and the world is beautiful and amazing and nothing bad is happening, but because you've learned that how you feel matters and you're willing to honor that. This is a really important topic for me and the very important part of what I teach. Because when you notice how you're feeling and you care about how you feel, and you're willing to do something to shift that, it is absolutely life-changing. And it allows you to show up in your life for the people that you love, for you, in a much more in a really beautiful way, because you're caring for and tending to how you feel.

Reflection Questions To Recenter

Shannon 11:09

All right, we're gonna go ahead and move into the reflection questions. These will be posted in the show description. So if you don't have time available right now, you can always refer back to them. If it feels comfortable and safe to do so, go ahead and take a deep breath in and release. And allow yourself to sit with these questions. Number one, how did I want to feel this year? Question number two, where am I already experiencing more of those feelings than I might realize? And number three, what is one small thing I could do today or this week to intentionally create more of how I want to feel and just notice what comes up. And as I've mentioned many, many times, you don't have to go to the spa, you don't have to go spend a bunch of money. These practices and these are just small micro moments. And I believe that we often have more joy available to us than we may allow ourselves to see. You know, it really is the small moments that add up and your daily choices and decisions, like every day is what creates your life. And so when you are moving through feeling good, and that that shifts your perspective. And when you're shifting your internal world, it really does shift everything around you. It can't not shift things around you. All

Card Pull On Embracing Joy

Shannon 12:44

right, we're gonna go ahead and pull a card from the magic of what if card deck. These card decks are available on my website, purepossibilitiespodcast.com, if you would like to grab your own deck, and there's other merch available there as well. All right, I'm gonna pull from the magic of what if card deck volume two today. All right, we are going to shuffle the cards and pull a card to see what the energy is for today's message. All right. What if I allow myself to fully embrace joy today? I love that. Joy and peace are available to you throughout your day. Everything going on in the world doesn't have to change for you to find a micro moment of something that feels good for you. And you don't have to feel bad about that. You don't. Your suffering throughout every single day doesn't fix all of the things going on outside of you, it doesn't make it better. But when you allow yourself just a few moments in your day to have peace and joy and love for yourself, it really helps to navigate through all of the chaos that's constantly going on around us. Because we don't have any control over that. We can only allow ourselves to choose how we respond, and we can choose to go inward and provide ourselves with a few moments of peace. Your life doesn't have to be perfect for you to experience peace. Everything going on outside of you doesn't have to be perfect. Your circumstances don't have to change before you allow yourself micro moments of joy in your day, and you don't have to wait until everything is figured out to feel connected to yourself. What if this is simply your reminder to pause, to notice, to reconnect, and to ask yourself how do I want to feel? How do I want to feel right now in this moment? And what is one small thing I can do in this moment to honor that?

Peace Without Perfect Circumstances

Shannon 15:17

Thank you so much for being here. I hope you have a beautiful, beautiful day and an amazing week. Much love.