Every Branch Podcast

We’ve talked before about how the power of our perspective can change how we see the world. But how we see is first influenced by how we think. What do you do when your thought patterns aren’t always positive or supportive to your life experience? Today we get personal and share some of our current struggles with the way we think. We talk about why you should never think thoughts you wouldn’t be comfortable saying out loud (which Brooke learned the hard way), Sarah shares her current struggle with depression and how she’s tackling it head on, and how you can implement affirmations and visualization into your life in a way that doesn’t feel cheesy and out of reach. To get the full show notes for this episode (including links to resources we mention in the podcast), visit http://everybranch.is.

Last week we talked about serving, and how we’re both better about serving others when we have a project to get us going. But even though we shared some inspiring stories of people who are doing great things in service of others, when it comes to picking our own project to work on, there’s this annoying little barrier called a “comfort zone”. Maybe there’s something we want to start, or that sounds super interesting, but we hold ourselves back. Today we talk about how to break through your comfort zone and arrive into the world of possibility.

Ghandi said, “The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Some people are naturals at this, and have a gift and a heart for helping others. For others, it requires more practice and intention. Today, we talk about ways that we can develop the heart for serving, and share a profound method for asking the right question to those who need our care and attention—especially, when you’re talking with people who expertly deny help. To get the full show notes for this episode (including links to resources we mention in the podcast), visit http://everybranch.is.

Today we’re talking about living a beautiful life. Alexandra Stoddard, who wrote on this topic, said that people have a tendency to save up 95 percent of their money and effort to spend on 5 percent of their lives—festive occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, and vacations. Instead, she argues, the way to live a beautiful life is to make the daily 95 percent of your life beautiful and wonderful. So how do you make the mundane of your day become more like the shining moments? Today we’ll share our thoughts on the matter, giving special focus to food. After all, food gives us an opportunity three times a day to have a nourishing experience not just for our bodies, but for our souls.

Today we’re talking about our lives in seasons. Spring, summer, fall, winter – which season are you currently in? It's a challenge to find joy in whatever season you're in, especially in winter, when you aren’t seeing the growth you deeply hope for. Can you make joy a habit, regardless of your circumstances? Sarah thinks so, and today she shares how she does that.

“To thine own self, be true" Whether that means following your intuition and being honest with those who have hurt you, or choosing not to perform for other people, being you is a gift to others. But we often don’t look at it that way. It’s why we hover, why we hide, and why we put on a show…because of the fear that the "real us" isn’t what others want to see. As Donald Miller said in his most recent book, Scary Close, “Sometimes the story we’re telling the world isn’t half as endearing as the one that lives inside us…how can we be loved if we are always in hiding?…If we live behind a mask we can impress but we can’t connect.”

Today’s episode has an interesting twist. It was never meant to be aired. It was our practice episode at the end of 2014, to test out our recording equipment and see if our weekly conversations were interesting enough to turn into a podcast. We picked the topic of goals, a natural subject for approaching a New Year. Out of curiosity, Brooke decided to give this recording a listen and was astonished at what she found. Goals can be prophetic. In only four months since recording, we both accomplished major goals that we had only talked about casually months before. You’ve probably heard that writing goals down—even to never look at them again—significantly increases the chance of them being completed. After listening to today's episode and reflecting on what has happened since, we would have to add that confiding our dreams to another person has the same effect.

We've talked about friendship here before, and how it plays a role in the feeling of wholeness in our lives. We need to belong to a community and have a support structure to lean on through our challenges and triumphs. Strangely enough though, virtual reality has changed not only the meaning of friends, but also the way we experience community. Today we discuss the absolute necessity of cultivating friendship and community in physical reality, opening up our lives and homes to the people who live right next door. Sometimes this is scary. Because real life doesn't hide behind 140 characters, a limited frame of a photograph, and an edited persona. Sometimes we wonder whether our hesitation of inviting people right into our home doesn't stem from this glaring difference. To be seen, truly seen in full context. We'll talk about how to develop a sense of community right on our own street, how dropping the act of perfection makes others feel more comfortable with you, and even how to have crappy dinners. :

Today we’re talking about the trap of social media. Have you ever felt like you had your plugged-in habits under control, only to suddenly be finding yourself indulging in incessant checking in—certain something new and exciting might be happening in the online world? Or maybe you have a looming deadline on a project, and you procrastinate, telling yourself it’s too hard to do right now, so you take a quick break to Facebook. We’ve been there! This week, in fact. In this episode, we talk about a few ideas that help us stay on focused when all we want to do is veg out, and how to make it feel easy.

Friendships are important. If neglected, we feel the effects of it. So what do you do when some of those friendships are suffering? Do you go to the person who has offended you? How do you communicate your hurt feelings? In this episode we talk about how sometimes we develop false theories about why we don’t hear from our friends and try to find evidence to prove those theories true. We also discover how to give the benefit of the doubt and how friendship isn’t always about an equal give and take. Most of all, we learn that friendship is a vital part of our life—whether we are currently choosing to give it priority or not.

Today we’re talking about rest and rewards. We don’t know anyone who doesn’t experience relief at the sound of those two words. Yet, how often do we allow ourselves to experience rest? It can be easy to get caught up in work, family schedules, and the quest to get all the work done before we play. One of the exciting discoveries we make in this episode is that building in rest and reward into your daily schedule can actually make you far more productive. How do you do that, especially during times of intensity? When we recorded this episode, Sarah was in the thick of writing her first book with a major looming deadline. Can you still build in rest when the clock is ticking?

Today we’re talking about perspective and choosing your response to life around you. It’s amazing how the feeling of balance is often directly related to how we choose to see. Even if our responsibilities and schedule don’t change at all, we have control over whether we choose to see life with a lens of ‘overwhelm’ or a lens of ‘amazement’. In fact, we even suggest today that you completely eliminate the word ‘overwhelm’ from your vocabulary! That one simple change can help shift you into a mindset of possibility instead of limitation. Come join us today as we talk about how choosing your response and perspective can help bring more balance into your life.

Today we talk about wholeness, one of the common reasons that we feel out of balance in our lives. We put all our energy into one branch of our lives and suddenly the other branches start to look a bit ragged. When we use the term wholeness, we’re talking about living full and thriving lives in every branch of who we are. This is a challenge! Today we will both share some of our own struggles with wholeness…the boundaries we personally need to keep us track, why we love rules, how to be grateful for the limitations in our life, and the shocking realization that ‘there is no magic pill’! Seeking wholeness outside of ourselves through other people, achievements, or things just never quite brings the wholeness we hope it will. But in the end, the beautiful reality is that we already have everything we need inside of us.

Today’s conversation is a continuation of our Episode 2 topic of life balance. We talk about how to deal with overcommitting, how to use your talents and gifts in your weak areas, and how to recognize when things need to change. Life balance is a loaded, emotional phrase. People often bring it up during moments of overwhelm as they seek balance to compensate for feeling the effects of not being healthy. We're often the same way. Both of us love to work. We love our jobs, we love creating, and we've had a hard time fitting in rest, since often the rest we need is from things we love to do.

Today we tackle the topic of life balance. It’s a buzzword for good reason. Our lives are busy and so many of us feel the constant struggle of trying to give ourselves to many worthy causes. We get personal today in sharing our own struggles of searching for balance between work and family — especially when you really love your work. Life balance is a process that needs constant re-evaluation. Our lives are always changing as are the solutions we need. When we recorded this episode, Sarah had just been laid off from her full time job. Life is always throwing curve balls and the key is learning how to readjust.

It’s our first episode! We’re excited to share with you how we started planning for everybranch over a year ago. It’s a story of an inspired thought coming to two different people, on the same day, thousands of miles apart, unaware of the other person receiving the same idea. We’ll tell you how we connected dots and found each other, the purpose of everybranch, our intentions for this school and podcast, and we’ll share our foundational metaphor for how to live a thriving life. Welcome to our very first episode!